The Saluki men’s tennis team finished its fall season with a 15-0 sweep of Eastern Illinois Sunday at the SIU Fall Classic. 

SIU finished the fall season with a team record of 72-33, its best overall finish since 2005. 

“It all started at the Purdue tournament. We came out of the blocks really well,” coach Dann Nelson said in an interview with Saluki Athletics. “As [the team] continued to improve and continued to work hard the results started coming.” 

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Senior Jonny Rigby and junior Michal Kianicka, the No. 1 doubles team at SIU, defeated EIU seniors Robert Skolik and Rui Silva 8-3 to finish the fall season 7-2 in doubles matches. 

This was Rigby and Kianicka’s second tournament victory after winning the Flight A doubles bracket in the Purdue Fall Invitational on Sept. 27. The duo moved to 39 wins as a team, which is No. 2 all-time at SIU. They are now five behind Fabiano Ramos and Mickey Maule, who set the record of 44 in 1989. 

Sophomore Peter Molloy improved to 9-3 in the fall season by winning two matches Sunday. The first was a 6-1, 6-3 win against freshman Ognjen Jevtic and the second a 6-1, 7-5 win against sophomore Trent Reiman. 

The only Saluki with a better single’s record for the fall season was Kianicka, 9-2. 

Sophomore Alex Pozo had SIU’s only set loss in its 15 matches. After winning the first set of his second round matchup against Jevtic 6-3, the sophomore lost the second set 3-6. Pozo won the tiebreaker 10-2, adding to SIU’s 12-0 singles record against EIU. 

SIU returns to competition Jan. 16 in Knoxville, Tenn., against Eastern Kentucky. 

Brent Meske can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @brentmeskeDE. 

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