NEW ORLEANS, La. – North Dakota men's tennis closed its two weeks on the road in high fashion with a convincing 4-1 win over New Orleans on Thursday afternoon, moving UND to 12-6 overall this season.
 
The Privateers struck first with a 6-3 win from the top court in doubles play, but the Fighting Hawks immediately pushed back. The second and third positions finished nearly simultaneously as the pairs of Christos Alex & Darrshan Suresh Kumar and Justin Ilic & Kotaro Matsumura each collected a 6-4 win from their respective spots.
 
With UND now ahead 1-0, New Orleans tied things up after a 6-3, 6-2 win from the No. 3 court. But from then on, it was all North Dakota.
 
Matsumura fended off a rally from his opponent to secure the battled first set, 7-5, before turning up the momentum in the second set for a fiery 6-2 win. Suresh Kumar followed with the same sort of fire after dropping his opening set, 3-6. The freshman immediately went to work to collect a mirrored pair of 6-2, 6-2 wins to walk away victoriously.
 
The scoreboard held a 3-1 advantage for North Dakota while, down on the sixth court, Walker Valentine was hard at work. He cruised to an opening 6-3 first set win before facing a tied score of 6-6 in the second. The junior jumped out to an early lead in the tiebreaker and fought against a late comeback to secure the 7-6 (4) win and clinch the 4-1 team victory.
 
North Dakota men's tennis will not return to the court until Saturday, March 28 when the Fighting Hawks take on Drake at 12:30 p.m. inside Choice Health & Fitness.
 
For more information on North Dakota men's tennis, visit FightingHawks.com or follow on social media @UNDmtennis.