The Sacramento State men’s tennis team finished their regular season on Thursday afternoon with an unfortunate 7-0 loss in Bozeman, Montana against Montana State University. 

Men’s tennis coach Kevin Kurtz said that two of their starting six players for singles were out, which made things more difficult. 

“It was a tough loss,” Kurtz said. 

This defeat follows the team’s  5-2 loss at the University of Montana on Tuesday. 

Despite the Hornets losing their doubles 2-1 against the Bobcats, sophomores Mark Keki and Mate Voros won their match against the number one doubles team at MSU. 

“We were able to win against them 6-3 in a very tough battle and ended our regular season with a 19-1 record at [the] number one position,” Keki said about the duo’s match. 

The other two doubles teams were not as successful as Keki and Voros. Sophomore Rudolfs Aksenoks and junior Patrick Wong lost their doubles match 6-4. 

Junior Ori Maior and freshman Hayden Rand played an extremely close doubles match but were beaten 7-6 (7-5). 

Though the Hornets played hard, they were eventually defeated 6-0 in their singles matches. 

Not feeling his best, Keki said he had to step down from playing a single’s match on Thursday because of an undisclosed injury.  

Voros, Keki’s double’s partner, was one of the players that competed in the singles. Unfortunately, Voros lost to Bobcat Daan Van Dijk with scores of 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 10-8.

Wong was defeated by Matej Panik with scores of 6-1 and 6-2.

Maior also suffered a loss against Jamieson Nathan with scores of 6-2 and 7-5.  Rand followed the downward spiral by suffering back to back 6-4 scores against Brad Buckland. Rudolfs Aksenoks lost to Nejc Sitar 6-4 and 6-2. Lastly, senior Michael Gravel lost 6-4 and 6-2 against Joaquin Espinoza.

“The team was on the road for almost 10 days with limited amount of practice,” Aksenoks said. 

Aksenoks also said that the team was aware they had already earned a spot in the Big Sky finals, which has them excited to make some noise in the latter part of the year.

“We are very excited to return back to Sacramento to prepare for the Big Sky finals and do the last final push for the season,” he said.

Despite suffering this great loss at Montana State, the Hornets are on the lookout to continue on to the championship playoffs later this month. 

“Everyone’s looking forward to the playoffs in Phoenix, Arizona from April 28-30,” Keki said. “This was our most important match; there is a high chance we will also get [the] national rank.”

The Hornets will be participating in the 2022 Big Sky Tennis Championship later this month, where the winners will be guaranteed an entry into the NCAA Tournament.