October 2, 2011

Men's Tennis Opens Completes Fall Season With Strong Showing at ITA Regionals

FREDERICKSBURG Va. - The Swarthmore College men's tennis team competed in the ITA Regional Tournament this weekend at the University of Mary Washington. Seniors Max Bressman and Zachary Kelm reached the quarterfinals in the championship doubles draw, junior James Wieler reached the finals in the blue 2 singles draw, and sophomore Christian Carcione won the blue 1 consolation draw to cap off a successful fall season for the men's team.

Four players won first round matches in the championship singles draw. Bressman and Kelm beat Andy Dougherty of Haverford, 6-2, 6-2 and Vishnu Rajes of Washington College, 6-4, 6-2, respectively. Two freshmen Max Sacks and Irving Stone both continued their strong fall seasons by taking out Washington College's Aaron Elison, 6-4, 6-3 and Salisbury's Seth Rybak, 6-4, 6-4, respectively.

In the championship singles consolation flight, two sophomores, Preston Poon and Anthony Collard won their first round matches. Poon defeated Haverford's Natty Sergay, 8-2 and Collard took out Riley Bayer of University of Mary Washington, 8-5.

In the first round of the blue 1 singles draw Carl DeFranco lost a mere two games against Thomas Hoesman (St. Mary's College), 6-1, 6-1, before falling in the quarterfinals.

In the blue 1 consolation draw, Carcione won three consecutive matches, first against Curtis Quandt from Salisbury, 8-0, then against Jake Weisenthal from Haverford, 8-3, and finally against Daniel Lakhman from Muhlenberg, 8-6 to capture that title.

Wieler was successful in the blue 2 singles draw. He lost one game in his first-round defeat of Phil Myers of York College, and then reached the semifinals after beating Matt Hope of the University of Scranton, 6-4, 6-4. In the semifinals, Wieler won his match against Johns Hopkins' Edward Corty in a third-set super-breaker, 6-4, 2-6, 1-0(7), but then fell in a close match in the final round to James Lee of Roanoke, 8-6.

 Arguably the strongest performances of the weekend came from the men's doubles matches. In the championship draw, Bressman/Kelm won two tight matches to reach the quarterfinals. They defeated the fifth-seeded team of Barnas/Rybak from Salisbury University, 9-8(4) and the Washington and Lee pair Becht/Hu, 9-7.
 

Collard/Sacks picked up a doubles victory in the championship draw, defeating King/Bryce of Christopher Newport University 9-8(5), but then suffered a tight loss to the number one seeds in the round of 16.

In blue 1 doubles, Wieler paired up with Poon for a 9-7 win in the first round against Byrd/Hyland of the University of Mary Washington and a 6-3 quarterfinal win against a team from the University of Scranton.
 

The ITA tournament concludes a great fall season for the men's team who look to continue their success in conference play in the spring.