April 22, 2012
IOWA CITY – Playing his final match at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Complex, University of Iowa men’s tennis player Will Vasoscame up with the perfect performance on Senior Day.
Vasos defeated Minnesota’s Leandro Toledo, the 89th-ranked player in the country, in No. 2 singles to collect his 133rd career victory and go out a winner.
“It was awesome to go out with a win,” said Vasos, a native of Fort Collins, Colo. “Obviously, I wanted to get a team victory, but I was fighting hard for this singles win. This really culminates my four years here with this win.”
The Hawkeyes (1-20, 0-10) couldn’t get past the nationally ranked Golden Gophers despite Vasos’ victory as No. 35 Minnesota (12-6, 7-3) won the match, 6-1, Sunday in Iowa City.
Iowa would, however, close the regular season with a pair of big highlights coming from wins in No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles.
After Vasos dropped the first set 6-2 to Toledo, the senior would get on a hot streak and respond by winning straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.
Junior Garret Dunn and sophomore Michael Swankprovided the other big victory for the Hawkeyes, defeating a nationally ranked doubles team at the top doubles position. In a nail-biter against Minnesota’s No. 33 Rok Bonin and Julian Dehn, the Hawkeye tandem would pull through in extra games, 9-8. It was Dunn and Swank’s eighth No. 1 doubles victory of the season and their second win against a top-33 doubles team in Iowa’s last three matches.
“There are two things I am very pleased with: Our No. 1 doubles victory over a ranked team, and I was extremely happy to see Will close his career with a win over a ranked player,” said head coach Steve Houghton. “When all is said and done, he (Vasos) had a tremendous career here.”
The Gophers won No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to win the doubles point, and won five singles matches to improve their league record to 7-3.
Iowa honored four players on Senior Day as Vasos, Mitch Beckert, Tom Mroziewicz and Christopher Speercompeted at home for the last time of their careers.
“I’m very proud of our four seniors; Mitch, Tom, Christopher and Will,” said Houghton. “Although we’ve struggled this year, they contributed a lot to very successful seasons in the previous three years, and they are great guys.”
Iowa will enter the postseason on April 26th with the first round of play at the Big Ten Tournament. The conference tournament will be held in Evanston, Ill.
No. 35 Minnesota 6, Iowa 1
Singles
No. 1 – Rok Bonin (UM) def. Matt Hagan (IOWA) 6-1, 6-2
No. 2 – Will Vasos (IOWA) def. Leandro Toledo (UM) 2-6, 6-4, 6-1
No. 3 – Phillip Arndt (UM) def. Jonas Dierckx (IOWA) 6-2, 7-6
No. 4 – Julian Dehn (UM) def. Garret Dunn (IOWA) 2-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-6)
No. 5 – Jack Hamburg (UM) def. Joey White (IOWA) 6-1, 6-2
No. 6 – Michael Sicora (UM) def. Mitch Beckert (IOWA) 6-4, 6-2
Order of finish: 5, 1, 6, 2, 4, 3
Doubles
No. 1 – Dunn/Michael Swank (IOWA) def. Bonin/Dehn (UM) 9-8
No. 2 – Ramirez/Toledo (UM) def. Hagan/Dierckx (IOWA) 9-8
No. 3 – Hamburg/Arndt (UM) def. Vasos/Mroziewicz (IOWA) 8-5
Order of finish: 3, 2, 1