SAN ANTONIO – The Trinity University men's tennis team continued its successful run at the ITA Regional Singles and Doubles Championships on Friday, advancing five players into the Singles Quarterfinals and seeing three doubles teams reach the Semifinals round.
The Tigers had five of their seven singles players reach the quarterfinals and will account for more than half of the remaining field. The bad news is that there will be two matches between Trinity teammates in the next round, though that also means that the Tigers are guaranteed at least two of the four slots in the Singles Semifinals. Trinity also won three doubles matches to start the day, then all three won again to give the Tigers three of the four Doubles Semifinalists and one guaranteed spot for Trinity in the finals.
Top seed
Jared Perry (Tucson, Ariz. / Catalina Foothills) won 6-1, 6-2 in his singles match on Friday, defeating Marcus Torres of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (TX).
Ivan Nikolovski (Alpine, N.J. / Dwight Global) had a much more difficult match, but still pulled off the 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5) victory over Payne Smith from Hardin-Simmons University (TX). Perry and Nikolovski will play each other in tomorrow's quarterfinals, meaning one of them will be playing for a spot in the championship match.
Ryan Warren (Keller, Texas / Connections Academy), the defending regional singles champion and #3 seed at this year's tournament, also made his way into the Quarterfinals with a 7-6, 6-0 win over UMHB's Alec Rule and will face Concordia University's (TX) Steven Scholz at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.
Ethan Flores (Houston, Texas / Clear Lake) saw his singles run come to an end after falling to #4 seed Nathan Qi of Southwestern University (TX).
Aashish Dhanani (Austin, Texas / Westwood) earned a 6-2, 7-6 (8-6) win today over Ashton Ellis of Southwestern and will play in the Quarterfinals tomorrow against #2 seed and Tiger teammate
Kishan Kersten (Plano, Texas / West). Kersten was in the first TU versus TU match of the tournament against
Conor Kaczmarczyk (Aurora, Colo. / Regis Jesuit), and the teammates were tied 4-4 in the firs set when Kaczmarczyk retired.
The doubles tournament featured two rounds today, beginning with four Trinity teams in the Round of 16. Three of the Tiger teams won the first matchup to reach the Quarterfinals, with the only loss coming when
Elvin Selimovic (Audenge, France / The International School of The Hague) and
Ethan Ruppanner (Amarillo, Texas / Tascosa) were beaten 8-4 by the top-seeded team of Sam Black and Max Karsten from East Texas Baptist University.
Roshin Kamath (League City, Texas / Clear Springs) and Flores faced off against Black and Karsten and despite coming in as underdogs, the dynamic duo was able to knock off the top seeds and avenge their teammates with a thrilling 8-7 (9-7) victory. Kaczmarcyk and Dhanani came in as #3 seeds and won 8-3 against Texas Lutheran University's Cashton Herrera and Eric Moninger, then took down Kayden Lengacher and Gabriel Harris from Hardin-Simmons by a final of 8-2 to reach the Semifinals against teammates Kamath and Flores. The #2 seeds Perry and Kersten won 8-4 against ETBU's Erick Van Zyl and Jacob Daniell in their first matchup, followed by a shutout 8-0 win over Torres and Vincent Rivas from UMHB. The Tiger duo will face Joseph Snyman and James Arens of Southwestern for a chance to make it an all-Trinity doubles final.
Up Next
The singles competition kicks off the tournament action with the Singles Quarterfinals on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. at the
Butch Newman Tennis Center. The Singles Semifinals will follow at 1:00 p.m. to determine the two finalists for Sunday's Championship. Doubles will begin at 4:00 p.m. with the Semifinals round and will also produce two finalists.
