Posted: Oct 24, 2022

Men's tennis has strong day against NAIA competition

Glendale, AZ – The Mesa men's tennis team had a strong showing against two powerful four-year schools at the Arizona Christian Tournament Saturday.

"We had a great tournament at Paseo Racquet Club," said head coach Feroz Raat. "Playing against two of the top NAIA programs in the country was a great challenge. The tournament was formatted to have MCC compete against both Arizona Christian University and Ottawa University in singles and doubles. It was a very busy day of tennis. The T-Birds came out with great energy and were up on all three doubles matches against OUAZ.

"The matches came down to the wire and the T-Birds were not able to close out the wins on courts 1 and 2. Doubles against ACU were just has competitive as the Mesa were able to win 2 out of 4 doubles. Singles against both schools resulted in some very close matches and very exciting finishes. Against OUAZ freshman Asad Okoye was the highlight of the day as he dominated his match and won 8-0. Andrew Hoffman, Hung Pham, and Frichard Mulenga also pulled out big wins in singles.

"Against ACU singles proved to be just has tough as the T-Birds fought hard to finish the day. Hung Pham won in a big way to finish his day with a perfect record. Lukas Baruffi was the last match of the day and came back from being down 3-6 to win 8-7(5) in the Tiebreaker.

"I'm so proud of this team and the fight displayed against some big time competition. Love seeing all the hard work paying off as we look into the final couple weeks of the fall season."

MCC will close its fall season by hosting the T-Bird Invitational Nov. 11-13.

Results versus OUAZ

Harry Browning lost 4-8

Asad Okoye won 8-0

Andrew Hoffman won 8-4

Duncan Mulenga lost 5-8

Frichard Mulenga won 8-2

Lukas Baruffi lost 0-8 to

Hung Pham won 8-5 vs

Hoffman/Barufi lost 8-9(6)

Okoye/ D. Mulenga lost 8-9(5)

Pham/F. Mulenga won 8-1