Metro runner-up to Lopers Men’s tennis falls to Kearney in RMAC title By Jeremy Johnson jjohn308@mscd.edu Photo by Matthew Jonas • jonasm@mscd.edu Metro junior Drew Machholz smashes a serve toward University of Nebraska-Kearney April 20 at the Auraria Tennis Courts. The Lopers beat the Roadrunners 5-4. The two teams met again in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament championship April 22. Metro fell to Nebraska-Kearney 5-2.

   Nebraska-Kearney doubled up the Metro men’s tennis team last week, beating the Roadrunners at Auraria Courts in an April 20 match to rank the team first place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and again on April 22 to win the RMAC tournament championship.

   The No. 5-seeded Metro women’s team lost to Ft. Hays State in the first round of the RMAC tournament. But, the Roadrunners beat Nebraska-Kearney, 5-4, in their final regular-season match to finish fifth on the season in the RMAC.

   Sophomore Raghnild Kinoshita won her singles match, 6-3, 6-4, and junior Akiko Kinoshita won her singles match in three sets to take two of Metro’s four singles matches. The sisters also took a tight and crucial 9-7 doubles match to lead Metro to its second RMAC win of the season.

   Freshman Mitra Hirad and junior Tia Mahoney also won their singles matches in straight sets en route to the season finale win.

   The men’s team suffered a narrow, 5-4, loss when Nebraska-Kearney’s Luke Backhaus came back from a first-set loss to beat junior Will Meyer, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the final and deciding singles match.

   Meyer paired up with sophomore Sean Carlton on the third-seed doubles team that, after taking a 7-6 lead over the Lopers, lost the final three games to give up the set, 9-7.

   Sophomore Riley Meyer and juniors Drew Machholz and Mark Milner won three straight singles matches after senior Andre Nilsson’s opening loss. Carlton lost the No. 5 seed singles match to set up the tie-breaker between Meyer and Backhaus.

   Machholz and Milner also won their doubles match, 8-5. The Metro men finished the regular season in second place in the RMAC with a 4-1 record. Their final record was 12-8 overall.

   With the win, the Metro women improved to 12-6 overall and ended the season 2-4 in RMAC competition.

   The No. 2-seeded Metro men’s tennis team advanced to the RMAC tournament finals, but were defeated for the second time in three days by Nebraska-Kearney. After a first-round bye and a second-round, 6-2 victory over UC-Colorado Springs, the ‘Runners were defeated in the championship game, 5-2, by the No. 1-seed Lopers.

   Riley Meyer and Mark Milner beat the same singles opponents they had faced two days before, but it proved too little of a boost for the fatigued ‘Runners.

   Milner and Machholz also beat a familiar pair in doubles play, 8-5. The duo was responsible for Metro’s only two doubles victories against Nebraska-Kearney this season.

   The Metro women were eliminated in the first round of the RMAC tournament after taking just one singles and one doubles match against No. 2-seed Mesa State.

   Akiko Kinoshita won her singles match in three sets, while the duo of freshman Miriam Evangelista and Mahoney squeaked out a doubles win, 9-8 (3).

   Mesa State finished second in the tournament when it was defeated by No. 1-seed CSU-Pueblo, 5-3.

   Three Metro men’s singles players earned first-team honors, the RMAC office announced April 21.

   Riley Meyer, Machholz, and Milner earned numbers two through four first-team honors, respectively.

   The doubles team of Machholz and Milner earned second-team doubles honors, while Will Meyer was named to the singles All-RMAC second team.

   Rankings for the upcoming NCAA Division II tournament had not been announced at the time this article went to print.

2006 Metro Tennis
All-RMAC Honors
First-Team Singles:
No. 2 Riley Meyer
No. 3 Drew Machholz
No. 4 Mark Milner

Second Team Singles:
No. 6 Will Meyer

Second Team Doubles:
No. 2 Mark Milner/Drew Machholz