Edgewood College box score
University of Dubuque box score
Dubuque, IA – The Prairie Fire kicked off the 2012 season with a split on Saturday at the University of Dubuque’s Chlapaty Recreation and Wellness Center.
Knox opened with a dominating performance against Edgewood College (WI), winning 9-0 against the Eagles (0-2). The Prairie Fire then dropped its first match of the season, 6-3, against highly touted University of Dubuque (2-0).
Junior David Ham (Lakewood, WA, Shadow Ridge) had an outstanding day for the Prairie Fire. He went undefeated in his two #5 singles matches while teaming up with first-year Jonathan Ng (Hong Kong, China) to win their two #3 doubles matches against Edgewood and Dubuque.
Ham defeated Edwin Mendoza of Edgewood in their singles match 6-1, 6-1. He and Ng beat Mendoza and Eric Gavinski 8-1 in their doubles showdown to help lead the Prairie Fire to a season-opening win.
The other Knox winners in the first match of the season were senior Erik Hane (Littleton, CO, Mullen) at #1 singles, Ng in the #2 slot, seniorShaun Mulani (Bourbonnais, IL, Bradley-Bourbannais) at #3, first-year Karolis Ruzgas (Downers Grove, IL, Downers Grove North) at #4, and first-yearWalter Palmer (Wilmette, IL, New Trier) at #6 singles.
Hane and Mulani stopped Edgewood’s #1 doubles team of Max Divelbliss and Cody Strebig 9-8. Ruzgas and Palmer downed Tim Morgan and Michael Wanta 8-5 in their #2 doubles match. Ham and Ng completed the sweep with their #3 doubles victory.
Ham had a hand in two of the Prairie Fire’s three wins against the University of Dubuque.
He beat Michael Braden 6-1, 6-1 in their #5 singles match then teamed up with Ng to easily defeat Braden and Shawn Iben at #3 doubles 8-1.
Palmer had the other win for Knox, a 6-3 and 6-4 triumph against Chris Matteson at #6 singles.
Ham was 4-0 on the day. He allowed just four points in the four singles sets of his two matches and six total points when including Ham’s two doubles matches.
Palmer and Ng both had 3-1 records. Hane, who went up against #17 nationally ranked Nicholas Garcia of Dubuque at #1 singles and #1 doubles, still wound up with a 2-2 record. Mulani and Ruzgas were both 2-2 as well as no Knox player finished below the .500 mark.
The Prairie Fire resumes play on February 10 and February 11 beginning at 8:00 a.m. both days at the Principia College Tournament in Elsah, Illinois. The tournament is a round robin format that, besides Knox and Principia, also includes Greenville College and NCAA Division II Quincy University.
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