April 5, 2003 — Creighton’s men’s tennis team comes from behind to defeat Evansville, 4-3.
With doubles matches played first and the team winning the majority of the doubles matches earning one point, the host Purple Aces started well. Evansville won handedly at #2 and #3 doubles, 8-1 and 8-2. Creighton did get a #1 doubles win from Kevin Otto and Tom McCarthy, but the Aces led 1-0 heading into singles play.
Evansville took a 2-0 lead with a win over Evan Kimura at #6 singles. Tom McCarthy got Creighton on the board with his 6-3, 6-4 win at #2 singles. Eduardo Pignatari then followed with a win at #4 singles (6-2, 6-4) to tie the match at 2 apiece.
Evansville regained the lead with a 6-2, 6-4 win at #1 singles over Otto. Meanwhile, Vinny Meens (#3) and Richie Gonzalez (#5) were in marathon matches. With Evansville needing just to win one of the remaining two matches, Gonzalez held off three match points while down 3-5 in the 3rd set. Again, he held off one match point at 5-6 in the 3rd set to force a tie-breaker, only to come up with some amazing serve and volley points in clutch situations.
Gonzalez won his match 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4), while at the same time Meens earned himself a match point, which he would win (2-6, 6-2, 6-4). That comeback gave Creighton the 4-3 win against the Aces after 4 hours of match play.
