Bearcat men start season with win

The Northwest Missouri State men's tennis team rallied from an early deficit to earn a 6-3 win over Alabama-Huntsville in their season opener Friday afternoon.

The Bearcats fell behind early as the Chargers took No. 1 and No. 2 doubles by identical 8-4 scores. Alvaro Riveros and Dylan Bernatzky picked up the lone doubles win in the No. 3 position to start the Bearcat comeback with an 8-4 win.

Once singles action started the Bearcats rolled to five straight wins only dropping No. 1 singles. Sergio De Vilchez fell in a close match, 6-0, 6-4 in the only singles loss.

Rafael Bugiga jump started Northwest in No. 2 singles with an exciting 7-6, 7-5 win over Nestor Perez.

Northwest grabbed wins at No. 3 singles as Lluis Altimires won 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 over Chris Kana and teammate Guilherme Narducci cruised in No. 4 singles. Narducci was a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Fredrik Graaner.

Jason Harris won at No. 6 singles, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 as Alvaro Riveros won his No. 5 singles match, 6-4, 6-1.

Women

ST. JOSEPH— The Northwest Missouri State women's tennis team fell 7-2 Saturday in the season opener against Northeastern State.

The Bearcats were trying to comeback from a 3-0 deficit after dropping all three doubles matches.

Camila Quesada got the Bearcats on the board with a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 1 singles over Ivana Belejova.

Northwest would only pick up one more win at the No. 3 singles position when Alexis Bartek earned a 6-4, 6-3 win.

However, the day would belong to the RiverHawks with wins at No. 2, No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 singles.

Emily Hoffman lost a heartbreaker falling 8-5 in No. 6 singles to Barbora Jirickova, the Bearcats closest loss in singles play.

The Bearcats hit the road next week in non-conference action starting Feb. 21 against Harding.