Name: Sweep defines the bitter-sweet home finale for seniors
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Sweep defines the bitter-sweet home finale for seniors

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                                In a Senior Day celebration doubling as the men’s tennis team’s final home match of the season, the Bluejays strung together a 7-0 sweep against Nebraska-Kearney.On April 7, a Creighton victory marked not only Creighton’s sixth consecutive win, boosting them to 13-6 on the season, but also three seniors’ last time playing at Hanscom Tennis Courts.&nbsp;Matthew Lanahan, Zach Maline, and Shin Inoue, each of whom sported the Creighton blue all four years of their college career, aided in ending their home careß´†ers with wins across the board.&nbsp;
        Setting the tone for the matches to come, Creighton pairings Alejandro Gandini and Yuma Daijima, as well as Inoue and Maline on the next court over, delivered identical 6-2 victories at the No. 3 and No. 2 doubles positions, respectively.&nbsp;As the team headed into singles spearheading a 1-0 lead, the momentum set by the doubles duos flowed into singles success..The Bluejays’ first singles victory of the evening came from Gandini, who secured a straight set 6-0, 6-3 victory at No. 4 singles to put the Bluejays up 2-0.&nbsp;Extending Creighton’s lead to 3-0 was Lanahan, as the senior dominated with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 1 singles.Lanahan’s win over his Nebraska-Kearney opponent, however, meant more than just another well-fought victory. It meant his bitter-sweet finale donning the Creighton uniform at home.“It means everything to me,” Lanahan said. “You know, the facility’s not perfect, but I love it here [at Hanscom Tennis Center]. It’s been a lot of fun to play here for the last four years. So it was really sweet to get a win here for this last match.”&nbsp;The momentum continued for the Bluejays, as sophomore Kirtan Patel added an exclamation point to Creighton’s already glowing success by clinching the match in two sets, handily defeating his opponent 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 singles.&nbsp;&nbsp;While the result of the match was already decided after Patel’s finish, Nebraska-Kearney continued to play with fire, keeping the Bluejays on their toes, especially at the No. 3 and No. 5 singles positions.Sandwiched between Patel’s win and a 7-5, 7-5 victory from Shin Inoue, sophomore Yuma Daijima faced his share of adversity at the No. 5 singles position, entering a winner-takes-all 11-point tiebreaker.&nbsp;
        After losing a close first set 5-7, Daijima stormed back into the match for a dominating 6-0 win in the second.&nbsp;“My body was a little tight in the first set,” Daijima said about what led to his success in the second set. “But [after that] I just tried to relax myself and play flexible.”Thus, the match came down to an 11-point tie-breaker. With Gandini, junior Blake Eason, and others supporting him from the unused court, Daijima went back and forth with his opponent before emerging victorious by a slight margin, 11-9.“All my teammates finished earlier and they supported me in the end, [and] that definitely helped me a lot,” Daijima said.With wins racked up on all the courts except for the No. 3 singles position, hopes of a sweep came down to a three-set battle between Zachary Kuo and his Loper opponent. After splitting the first two sets, 6-2, 4-6, Kuo pulled out a 6-4 third-set victory in the final match of the evening.“I am extremely happy for the three seniors that we sent off today,” head coach Gerhard Posch said. “I never expected a sweep, so it makes it even a better day for us… I told the guys, I said, the better they play, the more it helps us. We need good matches and it’s kind of what they got at those two positions [No. 3 and No. 5 singles.”Thus, Inoue, Lanahan, and Maline’s careers at Hanscom Tennis Center came to a close, but the value they added to the team has not been overlooked.“Zachary… he makes every car ride fun. I know the guys love hanging out with him, so we’ll miss him a lot,” Posch said. “Matthew is just an outstanding leader.&nbsp; I’ve said that from the get-go. Shin has had just a really solid playing career. He’s played all of his four years at Creighton, he was always in the lineup, so he’s been extremely solid and reliable. We’re going to miss [them] dearly as people and also as players, but all good things must come to an end and I think they ended our streak at home this year in the best fashion possible.”Lanahan also said the sweep was just the icing on the cake for an amazing career at Hanscom Tennis Center. But with the Big East Championships just on the horizon and two more regular season matches to play, the senior said he is just going to make the most of the moment to continue to help his team be successful.“I’m just looking at [it] as an opportunity, and kind of giving back to my teammates that have been there for me for so long,” Lanahan said. ‘[I want to] put on as good of a performance for them as well and just help them try to get as many wins as we can… it’s a little bittersweet because it’s hard to see that it’s time to come [to] an end. But really grateful to have made these memories with the guys.”The Bluejays’ second-to-last regular season match is set for April 12 at 2 p.m. in Beaumont, Texas against Lamar.
        
                                
                                



                                
                                
                                
                                In a Senior Day celebration doubling as the men’s tennis team’s final home match of the season, the Bluejays strung together a 7-0 sweep against Nebraska-Kearney.On April 7, a Creighton victory marked not only Creighton’s sixth consecutive win, boosting them to 13-6 on the season, but also three seniors’ last time playing at Hanscom Tennis Courts.&nbsp;Matthew Lanahan, Zach Maline, and Shin Inoue, each of whom sported the Creighton blue all four years of their...

Sweep defines the bitter-sweet home finale for seniors

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