It was a tough day for the DePaul Club Tennis A Team, who dropped all three of its pool-play matches on Thursday at the USTA Tennis on Campus Nationals in Cary, N.C.

DePaul faced a solid trio of universities on its first day — University of Minnesota, Texas A&M and Arizona State University.

The Demons’ first match was against the University of Minnesota, who were the 2015 National Runners Up. The tension was high after the Minnesota coach commented that “snitches get stitches” during the women’s double match. This heinous comment was in reference to DePaul Club Tennis President Jon Mulvey notifying the USTA Tennis on Campus nationals tournament director that Minnesota had two former varsity players on their team, which is blatantly against the rules of USTA Tennis on Campus.

“Minnesota’s behavior was disappointing,” said senior Temi Adelakun. “But at the same time it motivated me to get the doubles point. Tim and I played great to get the first win of the day.”

DePaul didn’t let poor sportsmanship hinder its efforts, as they put up a good fight, with two of the four losses being decided in a tiebreak. Unfortunately, the Demons fell 20-28 to the controversial Minnesota squad.

The Demons looked to rebound against Texas A&M. The Aggies have won more National titles then any university in the country. The Texas A&M squad proved to be too tough for DePaul, beating them soundly 28-15. Junior Jack Klein was the only Demon to win, tactically outsmarting his opponent on his way to a solid 6-4 win.

“I was in the right state of mind today to win. It’s not all about power… I was consistent today,” Jack Klein said. “It was special to win a match at Nationals. Now I can tell my grand kids one day.”
In the third and final match of the day, a tired DePaul squad was poised to beat Arizona State after they won men’s and women’s doubles 6-4 each. However, the Sun Devils rebounded strongly with two commanding 6-0 men’s and women’s singles. The Demons put up a good fight at mixed doubles, coming back from a 1-3 deficit to tie it at 3-3 before eventually falling 6-3. Overall, Arizona State took the match 26-15.

“Today was always going to be difficult because of the teams in our pool,” Mulvey said. “It would’ve been a tough day for anyone. Tomorrow will be a better illustration of the team we really are.”

DePaul will be back in action Friday at 10 a.m. against Stony Brook University.