Kearney, Neb. – Junior lefty John Steinke won in straight sets at number five singles to help the Nebraska-Kearney men's tennis team beat RMAC rival Metro State, 5-3, in an NCAA Central Regional dual Tuesday afternoon at Harmon Park.

The Lopers (18-9) advance to the “Sweet 16” for the fourth time in program history and will battle the second-ranked West Florida Argonauts May 16th in Louisville, Ky. That dual will start at 4:00 p.m. Central time. 

UWF was national runner up in 1997 and then won back-to-back national titles in 2004 and 2005. Click HERE for the Sweet 16 bracket (UNK is Central Region # 2).
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To beat the Roadrunners for the second time this year and to improve to 6-10 all-time in the NCAA's, UNK won all three doubles matches.

At the top spot, senior Josh Raymond (Elkhorn) and sophomore Yeswanth Nadella (India) managed an 8-6 win over Lucio Cangiano and Gabriel Vlahos. These are two of the top doubles teams in the region.

UNK then went ahead 2-0 as sophomore Revel Yehezkia (Indonesia) and freshman Jack Nicholson (England) got out to an early lead and rolled to win 8-3 in the third position.

The Lopers picked up a huge point as Steinke (Grand Island H.S.) and junior Arin Enge (Olathe, Kans.) battled back several times and eventually overcame Adrien Delvaux and Alec Parmenter to win 9-7 at No. 2 doubles.

However, the momentum quickly changed as Metro got out to early leads in five of the six singles matches. They went on to win straight set matches at No. 1, 3 and 4 singles to tie the match at three.

Enge put UNK ahead once again as he got past Parmenter at No. 6 singles (7-5, 6-3). Steinke also won his first set by a 7-5 score and then closed out Jon Evangelista 6-2 in the second set to clinch the dual.

In the lone match that didn't finish, Nadella battled back to win the second set against Vlahos. The pair were tied at two in the third set when Steinke won.