The Denison University men's tennis team kicked off the 2010 season with a 6-3 victory over Division II opponent Grand Valley State University on Friday afternoon in Granville.

The Big Red jumped out to a 3-0 lead after sweeping doubles action.  The No. 3 doubles team of Matt McErlean (Hudson, Ohio/Hudson) and Tom Cawood (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) cruised to an 8-1 victory over Jeff Globerson and Ryan Diebold, while Tyler Cempre (Worthington, Ohio/Thomas Worthington) and Nate Hobrath (Strongsville, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) edged Tony Dang and Marc Roesslein, 8-5, at the first doubles flight.

DU's sweep was completed following an exciting match at second doubles.  Trailing the Lakers' Philipp Claus and Brock Plangger 7-5, the team of Jared Connolly (Oak Park, Ill. Oak/Park & River Forest) and Tim Martin (Oak Park, Ill. Oak Park & River Forest) rallied to tie the game at 7-7.  Now down 8-7, the Big Red tandem was able to tie the game and force a tiebreaker situation.  Connolly and Martin jumped out to a 5-0 advantage in the tiebreaker before winning the final point via 7-4 score.

In singles, Denison won three of six matches en route to garnering the season-opening victory.  McErlean defeated Roesslein in the second flight 6-2, 6-3, while Cempre prevailed over Globerson (6-2, 7-5) at No. 5 singles.  Evan Verbofsky (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel Area) won at fourth singles with a straight-set victory over Plangger, 7-6, 6-4.

Denison improves to 1-0 on the year, while Grand Valley State falls to 0-1.  The Big Red returns to action on Feb. 19 when they host Ohio Dominican University at 4 p.m.