The men's tennis team sought to vent their frustrations after losing matches to Illinois and Purdue, and they did so, thrashing 8-1 St. Bonaventure yesterday.

With the exception of an injury default, the Lions (10-6) won all of their matches in straight sets.

The injury default occurred in the second doubles match which pitted the Lions' Chad Skorupka and Corey Goldstein against Dave Lockwood and Matt Ryan. With the Lions down 0-3 in the first set, Goldstein reaggravated a muscle pull and couldn't continue.

"Corey pulled a muscle in the match on Sunday and reinjured it today in his singles match," said Coach Jan Bortner. "He had to stand around and wait to play the doubles match, and then the muscle tightened and he couldn't move well."

With the Lions' heavy schedule, the players are fatigued and some have received injuries.

"The matches are taking their toll and we don't have many opportunities to rest the players," Bortner said. "The problem is that we have big matches and we can't taper off. We have to keep fighting."

In yesterday's match, Bortner shuffled the starting lineup to give some players a much needed rest. Brett Pollak replaced Brett Englesberg in the No. 6 singles position, and defeated Bill Colbey in a one-sided match by the score of 6-0, 6-2.

Englesberg, who is usually Ivan Spinner's doubles partner, was replaced by Marc Payne. Payne and Spinner combined to defeat Dave Davoli and Mike Nowak 6-1, 6-1.

After their last two losses last weekend, members of the team seemed uptight and lacking self confidence. However, yesterday was a different story.

Second-seeded Greg Gaunt was one of the players who had a sharp game -- he defeated Dave Lockwood 6-2, 6-0 in his singles match and combined with Eduardo Abril for a 7-5, 6-0 doubles win.

"Greg did much better today," Bortner said. "He had his confidence and seemed relaxed. Sometimes he gets too hyper on the court."

Pollack and Payne did an excellent job of filling in for Englesberg, which Bortner believes was extremely important.

"With our schedule and people in need of rest, we need players who are fresh and can step in ready to go," Bortner said.

Bortner saw a large improvement in the return of serve, which had been the team's major problem in the last week. Recently, the lack of a solid return was hurting the players, especially in doubles matches where the server's teammate can volley the return for an easy winner.

Yesterday, excellent return of serve in both the singles and doubles matches aided the Lions in their decisive victory. The Lions were able to hit hard shots off the serve and scored some easy points as a result.

"Little by little we are making progress in that area," Bortner said.

No. 1 singles player Eduardo Abril hit excellent return of serves in his 7-5, 6-4 victory over Naueen Singh, while he and Gaunt both had good return shots in their doubles victory 7-5, 6-0.

Spinner also hit hard returns, which contributed to his 7-5, 6-4 victory over Matt Ryan.

"I have been practicing my shots, especially my serve and volley and my return of serve," Spinner said. "Right now I'm getting ready for this weekend."

Bortner said that this weekend is important for the Lions. The team will travel to Michigan for Saturday's 1 p.m. match and to Michigan State for a 12:30 match on Sunday.

Bortner believes that the team's confidence is fine, but it needs to work on the technical aspects such as return of serve and approach shots.

"We have to make sure we are ready physically and we can't push too hard" Bortner said.

"The team is excited," Spinner said. "They are two tough teams and we have a chance to do something and get a win under our belts."