DES MOINES, IOWA - The Drake men's tennis team capped off a successful opening weekend earning a 7-0 triumph over Nebraska-Kearney on Sunday (Jan. 30) at the Roger Knapp Tennis Center.

For the second consecutive match, the Bulldogs swept doubles play with the tandem of senior Mauricio Ballivian (Santa Cruz, Bolivia) and sophomore Anis Ghorbel (Sfax, Tunisia) clinching the point on the strength of a 8-2 victory over Josh Raymond and Yeswanth Nadella at No. 1.

In singles, wins by sophomore Jean Erasmus (Windhoek, Namibia) and Ghorbel at the Nos. 3 and 4 positions set the stage for Ballivian to seal the match besting Raymond at No. 1, 6-2, 6-2.

Rounding at the victory total for Drake at the second, fifth and sixth positions, respectively, was sophomore James McKie (Edinburgh, Scotland), junior Jonathan Hadash (Lapid, Israel) and junior Sean O'Grady (Tempe, Ariz.)

Drake is now off for nearly two weeks before battling Central Florida (UCF) on Feb. 12 in Bloomington, Ind.

DRAKE (2-0) DEF. NEBRASKA-KEARNEY (1-1), 7-0

JAN. 30, 2011 • ROGER KNAPP CENTER

SINGLES:

No. 1 Mauricio Ballivian (DU) def. Josh Raymond (UNK), 6-2, 6-2

No. 2 James McKie (DU) def. Yeswanth Nadella (UNK), 6-4, 6-1

No. 3 Jean Erasmus (DU) def. Rodrigo Duncan (UNK), 6-1, 6-0

No. 4 Anis Ghorbel (DU) def. Kyle Conzemius (UNK), 6-2, 6-0

No. 5 Jonathan Hadash (DU) def. John Steinke (UNK), 6-1, 6-3

No. 6 Sean O'Grady (DU) def. Josh Smith (UNK), 7-6 (4), 6-1

Order of Finish: 3,4,1,2,5,6

DOUBLES:

No. 1 Ballivian/Ghorbel (DU) def. Raymond/Nadella (UNK), 8-2

No. 2 Ryan Drake/Erasmus (DU) def. Conzemius/Steinke (UNK), 8-6

No. 3 McKie/O'Grady (DU) def. Smith/Duncan (UNK), 8-0

Order of finish: 3,1,2