LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.— Montreat College's men's tennis team played in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) NAIA Men's South Regional Championships on Thursday and Friday. The event, hosted by Georgia Gwinnett College, featured a 32-player single-elimination bracket for singles play and a 14-team single-elimination bracket for doubles play.
In singles action, all the Montreat players were matched up against a foe from Tennessee Wesleyan University.
Lucas Descalzi won his opening match, 6-0, 6-0, and teammate
Vitor Monteiro won his initial match, 6-2, 6-1. The pair of Cavaliers were the only two players to advance to the next round. Both men fell to their round of 16 opponents from Georgia Gwinnett College. Descalzi lost 6-0, 6-2, while Monteiro fell 6-3, 6-3.
Youssef Idboufous won the most singles games among Montreat players eliminated in the first round. He lost by set scores of 6-2, 6-0. Both
Paul Saemann and
Fabrizio Moreno won a game in their pairings. The duo lost 6-1, 6-0, and 6-0, 6-1, respectively.
Joaquin Hernandez was held scoreless after being swept in two sets, 6-0, 6-0.
The doubles competition was just as tough as Montreat was unable to win a match. Four Cavalier teams competed in the doubles tournament. Hernandez and Saemann posted the most wins among Montreat players in their contest, losing 8-5 to a squad from SCAD Atlanta. Monteiro and Idboufous dropped their match, 8-4, to a pair of Georgia Gwinnett players. Moreno and Descalzi fell 8-3, while
Julian Stolevski and
Ben Smith were defeated, 8-2. Both teams played duos from Tennessee Wesleyan.
The Cav player with the most game wins during the tournament was Monteiro with 22 total wins. Descalzi finished with 17 total games won. Behind them, Idboufous and Saemann concluded with six wins. Hernandez tallied five, while Moreno collected four. Stolevski and Smith each had two in their event.
The next action for the men's tennis team is slated for Oct. 4 when the Cavs host the Guilford College Quakers in a team match.
