ST. LOUIS, Mo. / GRANVILLE, Ohio – The Capital University men's tennis team concluded their fall calendar of events with a loaded slate of competition at two very challenging events – the ITA Central Regional Championships in St. Louis, Missouri and the Big Red Invitational in nearby Granville, Ohio.
Both of these competitions included numerous nationally ranked and regionally ranked opponents, thus testing what this young group of Comets is made of.
All-in-all, Capital combined to finish 12-18 overall as individuals between the two events, including a 7-13 mark against regionally ranked opponents.
"Overall, I thought our program was well represented at both tournaments this weekend," said head coach
Cody Hurley. "We built a lot of momentum coming into these events and finished the fall season with a lot of promising results. There is still plenty of work to do if we want to compete for a conference championship this spring, but I am feeling confident heading into the offseason."
ITA CENTRAL REGIONALS
The only doubles pairing to compete at ITAs was the duo of
Leonardo Abreu and
Luke Ritchie. The pairing went 1-2 overall. In the main draw round of 64, Abreu and Ritchie lost to Wittenberg 8-3 to be bumped down to the consolation bracket. There, Abreu and Ritchie rebounded with a strong 8-7 comeback win over Hanover to book a place in the consolation round of 16. There, an 8-2 loss to Webster ended the event for Luke and Leonardo.
In singles, Abreu also saw himself with two matches, finishing 1-1. In the round of 64, Abreu defeated Principia's Ernesto Botero-Diaz by a score of 6-1, 6-2. In the round of 32, Abreu was defeated by one of the top-ranked singles players in the country – Vishwa Aduru of the No. 2 ranked Case Western Reserve Spartans. The scores against Aduru went in favor of the Spartan 6-3, 6-1.
Also competing in singles were
Jay Fortner and
Alex Stout. Fortner finished 1-2, while Stout was 0-2.
Fortner lost to Covenant's Ben Onufrock 6-3, 6-3 before defeating Webster's Alex Pinkston 7-6, 5-7, 10-5. He was then knocked out by Adnan Alousi of Kalamazoo 6-0, 6-0.
Stout lost to Jacob Watson (DePauw) 6-0, 6-1 before falling to Filippo Martini 8-2 in a single set. Martini was a member of the defending National Champion University of Chicago.
DENISON BIG RED INVITATIONAL
Five Comets took to the Big Red Invitational which featured two nationally ranked opponents in Denison (No. 12) and Kenyon (No. 20), as well as two other regionally ranked opponents in Wooster and defending OAC Champion Ohio Northern. Despite the stiff competition, the Comets didn't waver as each player competing won at least one match.
In doubles,
Thomas Secrist and
Spencer Surles paired up to defeat Wooster's Alex Drewes and Walker Wood 8-6, but lost to both Kenyon and Denison's duos 8-3.
Jackson Havel and
Brady Wink also made up a doubles team, finishing 1-2 as well. They defeated Wooster's Ian Loh and Kevin Si 8-2 but lost to Ohio Northern 8-1 and Ohio Wesleyan 8-2.
A round of singles action is featured below…
- Thomas Secrist finished 2-1, defeating Namit Misra of Wooster (4-6, 7-5, 10-8) and Mac Robertson of ONU (6-2, 7-6).
- Jackson Havel also finished 2-1 individually as he beat Sam Gadkar of OWU (6-1, 6-3) and Ian Loh of Wooster (7-5, 6-3).
- Jesse Stevens finished 1-1. His win came over Jeremy Dao of OWU (6-1, 6-1).
- Spencer Surles went 1-2, defeating Walker Wood of Wooster 6-2, 6-3.
- Brady Wink also went 1-2. His win came over Wooster's Kevin Si (7-5, 6-2).
WHAT'S NEXT
Capital will now pause for the winter months and begin preparations for the championship spring season, set to commence in late February/early March.
