KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Western Michigan men's tennis team picked up two big wins Sunday inside West Hill Athletic Club. The Broncos beat Butler and Illinois State each by a score of 5-2, improving to 6-1 overall and are now winners of three straight.

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Against Butler in the morning match, the Brown and Gold clinched the doubles point behind two 6-1 victories while junior Nick Schnobel put the Broncos up 2-0 with a singles win over Ari Gerstein at No. 6.

Butler battled back winning the next two matches to dead lock the score at 2-2. WMU would go on to rattle off three straight wins behind senior Maik Steiner, sophomore Kennosuke Nouchi, and junior Matej Svjetlicic to take the 5-2 victory.

In the second match of the day the Broncos started off hot again winning two of the three doubles matches to take the 1-0 advantage. The duo of Olivarez/Nouchi made quick work of their opponents and went 2-0 in doubles play today.

Western Michigan started out singles play strong against the Redbirds as Steiner and Svjetlicic both won in straight sets. Illinios State then rattled off two straight wins to pull within one but the Broncos finished strong with victories from Olivarez and Schnobel in the five and six spots.

No. 65-ranked Steiner went 2-0 in the one seed and moves to 4-2 on the season. Schnobel also had himself a day going 2-0 as well and improved his winning streak to six matches.
Sophomore Jannik Opitz entered the day on a seven-match winning streak and was tabbed as the Mid-American Conference Singles Player of the Week last week but was bugged by a back injury and dropped both matches today.

WMU (6-1) heads to East Lansing next Friday, Feb. 2 to battle the Michigan State Spartans and look to pick up their second win against a Big Ten opponent this season.