Knox vs. Simpson box score
Knox vs. North Central box score
Galesburg, IL – The Prairie Fire got back in the win column on Saturday against Simpson College and North Central College.
Knox opened against Simpson and won four of the six singles matches and two of three in doubles play to down the Storm 6-3 on Saturday at Lakeside Tennis Center. The win snapped a string of three straight losses for the Prairie Fire while Simpson lost its fourth in a row.
Sophomore Karolis Ruzgas (Downers Grove, IL, Downers Grove North) came back from losing his first set 3-6 in #1 singles against Simpson’s Alex Hook and took the next two 7-5 and 10-7 to win the match and improve to 3-3 in singles play this season.
Sophomore Walter Palmer (Wilmette, IL, New Trier) had an easier time in his #3 singles match against Peter Reitgraf, winning 6-1, 6-3. Palmer moved to 4-2 on the season playing #3 singles.
Senior David Ham (Lakewood, WA, Shadow Ridge) tied Palmer for the team-high in singles wins when he downed Nathan Liston in the #4 flight 6-3, 6-1. Sophomore Dustin Loch (Glen Ellyn, IL, Glenbard West) earned his second #5 singles victory of the season by defeating Dylan Hogan 6-4, 6-3.
Sophomore Jonathan Ng (Hong Kong, China, Hong Kong International School) came up short in a hard-fought #2 singles match against Simpson’s Zach Kusick 5-7, 6-1, and 10-6. The Prairie Fire also lost their #6 singles match when first-year Pragyaditya Mukerjee (Kolkata, India, The Cambridge School) fell to Blake Billings 1-6, 0-6.
Ruzgas and Palmer made it five wins in six matches at #1 doubles so far this season by defeating the Storm’s duo of Hook and Billings 8-1. Knox’s #2 doubles team of Ng and Ham posted an 8-1 victory against and Liston. Loch and Mukerjee couldn’t hold off Kusick and Hogan in their #3 doubles match, falling 8-3.
Knox (4-3) swept Saturday's doubleheader by edging North Central College 5-4.
Ruzgas and Palmer won their singles matches fairly handily for Knox. Ruzgas prevailed 6-2, 6-0 over Adam Ciccone at #1 and Palmer defeated Josh Rodig 6-3, 6-2 at #3. The tightest match that ultimately resulted in a Prairie Fire victory was at #2 singles.
Ng lost the first set to Rustam Saini 4-6 before prevailing in the second set 6-3. The third set was a nailbiter that Ng eventually won 10-6 as he took the match to improve to 4-3 on the season.
Ham fell in his #4 singles match against Mason Sass 1-6, 6-7. North Central's Jesse Adamson defeated Loch in their #5 singles match 6-4, 6-4 and Travis Kaszinski topped Mukerjee 6-1, 6-0.
Knox won two of the three doubles matches. Ruzgas and Palmer beat Ciccone and Sass 8-2 for their sixth #1 doubles victory of the season. Ng and Ham downed Rodig and Adamson 8-1 for their second win in a row in #2 doubles. The Cardinals #3 doubles team of Saini and Kyle Stiffler defeated Loch and Mujerkee 8-3.
North Central (1-2) gained a split on the day by beating Simpson (1-5) in their first match of the 2013 season 5-4 at Lakeside. The Cardinals played one match last fall and lost 9-0 at home in September against the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Knox has two very difficult Midwest Conference South Division matches coming up on February 23. Grinnell College, the winner of the last nine MWC championships, and traditional league power Lake Forest College await the Prairie Fire. Knox plays the Pioneers on the Grinnell campus at 12:00 p.m. before meeting the Foresters are 3:00 p.m.
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