Dukes Rally Past Northern Illinois for Neutral-Site Victory

Saturday, February 19

Youngstown, Ohio

2:05 p.m.

James Madison University

Northern Illinois

Dukes Rally Past Northern Illinois for Neutral-Site Victory

2/19/2022 7:01:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – James Madison men's tennis rallied back from two different deficits, opening its road trip with a thrilling 4-3 victory against Northern Illinois on Saturday afternoon at the YSU Indoor Tennis Center.

The Dukes kept their win streak intact, moving to 6-0 this spring, while the Huskies fell to 6-2.

NIU grabbed the early lead with a strong showing in doubles play.

Mikko Malinen and Mikael Vollbach downed Holden Koons and Youssef Sadek, 6-2, on court one for the early advantage, and clinched the doubles point on court three when Armin Koschtojan and Luke VanDonslear beat Mathieu Josserand and Edson Sanchez, 6-4.

The doubles match with William Karpinski and Oscar Hernandez on court two went unfinished at 5-5 once NIU took the doubles point.

The Dukes won four of six singles matches, including the last one in three sets to cap off the comeback.

Sadek quickly dispatched Malinen, 6-3, 6-0, on court three to tie the match at 1-1. The Dukes took their first lead of the afternoon, at 2-1, when Sanchez defeated Koschtojan, 6-1, 6-4, on court five.

The Huskies came back with wins on courts four and two to regain the lead at 3-2.

JMU squared the match at three apiece on court six, as Josserand closed out a tight one with VanDonslear, claiming the win by scores of 6-4, 7-6 (3).

The match would be decided on court one and Koons found himself in an early hole, dropping the opening set. After a strong bounce back in the second set, he used that momentum to battle past Kristopher Ortega, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, to clinch the JMU win.

The victory was also the 299th of Head Coach Steve Secord's career, as he seeks win #300 next time out.

QUOTING ASSISTANT COACH JASON SINKOFF
"Every match was a battle today, and that never-give-up attitude gave us the victory. It's the first time this year we lost the doubles point, and getting this win with our singles play shows how versatile a team we are. Holden stepped it up again. It's tough playing with the score tied 3-3 overall, but he said Mathieu winning his match to bring the decider to his court was all the motivation he needed to get the job done. Great team win!"

UP NEXT
JMU completes its trip to Ohio on Sunday, Feb. 20 when it takes on Youngstown State. The opening serve is set for 10 a.m.