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No. 5 Blue Demons Slide Past No. 4 Marquette
TAMPA, Fla. The No. 5 seed DePaul men’s tennis team rallied from an 0-2 deficit to defeat No. 4 seed Marquette and earn a berth in the BIG EAST Conference Championship semifinals. The Blue Demons are now 17-9 on the season, while the Golden Eagles fall to 16-8. Ben Hartman and Austin Doerner claimed the only DePaul victory on the doubles courts, defeating Trent Hagan and Miko Boulieris, 8-3. Marquette claimed the doubles’ point with wins in the No. 2 and No. 3 matches. The Golden Eagles extended their lead to 2-0 after Dusan Medan beat Jose Moncada, 6-2, 6-4 in the No. 2 singles match. The Blue Demons forged forward with back-to-back wins from Ben Hartman and Vanja Grgec. Hartman defeated Stephan Shao, 6-3, 6-1, while Grgec posted a 6-4, 7-6 decision over Jonathan Schwerin. Marquette fired back with a win in the top match to re-claim the lead, 3-2. It was then up to Bartosz Jozwiak and Alasdair Graetz to win their matches, in order for the team to walk away victorious. Jozwiak finished first with a 6-4, 7-6 triumph over Mark Rutherford. In the final and deciding match, Graetz had owned the first set, 6-1, but lost the second stanza in a tiebreaker to Boulieris. The junior Blue Demon pulled out the win in the third set, 6-3, to clinch the point for the team win. DePaul advances to the semifinals to face top-seed Louisville. Last time the two teams faced, the unranked Blue Demons upset a ranked Cardinal squad to claim third place in the 2008 BIG EAST Championships. Match time is scheduled for 8 a.m.
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