CHICAGO -- The Western Michigan men's tennis team began defense of its back-to-back Mid-American Conference championships by defeating Chicago State, 7-0, in emphatic fashion on the road Friday night.

The Cougars (3-5, 0-1 MAC) have just five players on their roster and started in a hole against the Broncos (11-8, 1-0 MAC). WMU needed just one win to claim the doubles point and did so with Michael Calderone and Kazuya Komada winning 8-3 at No. 1 doubles.

The Broncos were up 2-0 to start singles with Chicago State not having a representative at No. 6 singles. Freshman Pablo Olivarez and senior Kevin Hayward quickly ended the drama with a pair of 6-0, 6-0 wins at No. 5 and No. 1. Hayward's win was the 179th of his career, moving him into sole possession of 10th all-time at WMU in career wins.

The Broncos rounded out the scoring with Komada winning 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2, Calderone won 6-2, 6-2 at No. 3 and sophomore Casey Cullen won 6-1, 7-5 at No. 4.

Western Michigan returns to Kalamazoo to continue MAC play against Buffalo on March 29 at 11 a.m. and then head to Kalamazoo College to play the Hornets at the Markin Center at 6 p.m.

Western Michigan 7, Chicago State 0
Mar 20, 2009 at Chicago, Ill. (Bally's Sports Club)