OMAHA, Neb. - The Creighton men's tennis team bounced back after last weekend's MVC Individual Championships to defeat Western Illinois 6-1 at Hanscom Indoor Tennis Center on Saturday.  The Jays earned their first team victory of the season, improving to 1-0 in front of a large crowd at the Omaha facility.

The Jays started off play earning the point in doubles play, with all three dou's defeating their opponents.  In no. 3 doubles, Ryan Norman and Gabe Nagy defeated Alejandro Buceta and Ben Yue 8-4.  Kyle Obermeier and Sean Mathison came out on top of Mandela Shepard and Francisco Ortiz in the no. 2 doubles spot, winning 8-3.  Finally, J.T. Christian and Billy Paluch defeated Jeff Cote and Patrick Hammers 8-3 in no. 1 doubles.

After splitting the first two sets in no. 1 doubles 3-6, 6-4, Paluch came back strong to get to 10 first, winning the tie-breaker point 10-7 over Cote.  In no. 2 singles, Christian defeated Hammers in straight sets, only falling once in the opener, 6-1, 6-0.

In the middle singles, no. 3 and 4, the battles heated up as each player aimed to get points for their team.  In no. 3 singles, Obermeier held off Buceta, winning 6-3, 6-3, while Lube defeated Shepard 6-3, 6-4 in no. 4 singles.

The sole win for the Leatherheads came in the no. 5 singles, when Ortiz defeated Nagy in a hard fought and drawn out match, winning 5-7, 7-6, and then getting to 10 first, winning 11-9 in the tie-breaker.

Norman then defeated Jim Capalbo 7-6, 6-1 to continue the victory for the Jays.

Creighton will be in action tomorrow, traveling to Iowa City to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes.  Check in to www.gocreighton.com following the 1:00 p.m. match for all the results.