MORAGA, Calif. – Hawai'i men's tennis coach John Nelson picked up his first victory at UH after his Rainbow Warriors defeated Nevada, 5-2, Thursday, in a Western Athletic Conference match at the Timothy Korth Tennis Complex. After dropping its first seven matches, Hawai'i earned its first dual match victory of the season on its current six-match road swing.

The Rainbow Warriors (1-7, found themselves down 1-0 after dropping two of the three doubles matches. The team of Dalibor Ptak and Ryan Sceats defeated Nevada’s Adam Jooste and Dani Ericsson for UH’s only victory.

“Our guys showed a lot of character after playing their fourth day in a row,” Nelson said. “We were down after losing the doubles point and struggled early in our singles matches but they found a reason to win and did.”

Hawai‘i turned it around in the singles contests. Ptak and Sceats won their matches in straight sets, at the No. 1 and No. 2 courts, respectively. Ptak, who joined the team at the start of the spring season, has won his last three singles matches, including his 7-6, 6-4 victory over Jooste. Sceats swept Rudolf Leuschner, 6-2, 6-2.

Both Bryon Weinberg and Derrick Lajola rallied in their matches at the No. 3 and No. 4 courts. Weinberg dropped his first set to Milos Popovic 6-3, before winning the next two, 6-4, 6-2. Lajola rallied from a 6-2 opening game loss to Ericsson but won 6-1, 6-4 in the final two sets.

Freshman Burke Marold easily dispatched Brandon Sieh, 6-3, 6-1 at No. 5 while junior Travis Smith suffered a 7-5, 6-3 loss to Rafal Stupka at the No. 6 court.

The Rainbow Warriors wrap up their road trip with matches at Cal Poly and UC Irvine over the weekend.


Match Results
Hawai‘i def. Nevada, 5-2
Singles
1. Dalibor Ptak def. Adam Jooste (UN), 7-6, 6-4
2. Ryan Sceats def. Rudolf Leuschner (UN), 6-2, 6-2
3. Bryon Weinberg def. Milos Popovic (UN), 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
4. Derrick Lajola def. Dani Ericsson (UN), 2-6, 6-1, 6-4
5. Burke Marold def. Brandon Sieh (UN), 6-3, 6-1
6. Rafal Stupka (UN) def. Travis Smith, 7-5, 6-3

Doubles
1. Ptak/Sceats def. Jooste/Ericsson (UN), 8-4
2. Leuschner/Sieh (UN) def. Lajola/Weinberg, 8-6
3. Popovic/Max Volger (UN) def. Smith/Jamie Migia, 8-3



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