SAN ANTONIO – It will be an all-Tiger final as the Trinity University men's tennis team powered its way into Sunday's ITA Southwest Regional Championship finals in both singles and doubles.
Trinity came into Saturday's action with five of the eight Singles Quarterfinals and three of the four Doubles Semifinals teams. By the end of the day, Trinity was the only school still standing to set up singles and doubles finals that will be decided between teammates.
The singles #1 seed
Jared Perry (Tucson, Ariz. / Catalina Foothills) defeated teammate
Ivan Nikolovski (Alpine, N.J. / Dwight Global) in the Quarterfinals 6-4, 6-4, then ousted #4 seed Nathan Qi of Southwestern University (TX) 6-3, 7-5 in the Semifinals. Defending singles champion and #3 seed
Ryan Warren (Keller, Texas / Connections Academy) won 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 over Steven Scholz of Concordia University (TX) in his Quarterfinal match, while teammate and #2 seed
Kishan Kersten (Plano, Texas / West) won 6-3, 6-4 over teammate
Aashish Dhanani (Austin, Texas / Westwood) in the same round. Kersten won 6-3, 6-3 over Warren to spoil a chance at a repeat. The silver lining is that the trophy stays with Trinity as it will be Perry or Kersten that will secure their first ITA Regional Singles title.
In doubles,
Roshin Kamath (League City, Texas / Clear Springs) and
Ethan Flores (Houston, Texas / Clear Lake) lined up against teammates
Conor Kaczmarczyk (Aurora, Colo. / Regis Jesuit) and Dhanani in one of the Doubles Semifinals. Kamath and Flores prevailed with an 8-4 win to make it to their first final. Perry and Kersten, who will also battle in the singles final tomorrow, outlasted Southwestern's James Arens and Joseph Snyman with an 8-7 (7-5) win to join their teammates in the doubles championship match.
Up Next
The tournament continues with the Singles Championship match between Perry and Kersten at 9:00 a.m. The Doubles Championship will follow as Perry and Kersten team up against Kamath and Flores. The winners will advance to the ITA Cup in Georgia, and will also earn ITA All-American status with the victory.
