VESTAL, N.Y. – The Mercyhurst men's and women's tennis teams travel to Binghamton this weekend for a three-day tournament that also decides the Northeast Conference's representatives at the ITA Masters Championship in Rome, Ga. The "A" flight winners advance to the national event in November.
Binghamton, coached by Nick Zieziula (men) and Paul Caceres (women), hosts on the nine outdoor courts of the newly renovated Lane-Starke Tennis Center, with six indoor courts as a rain backup. The draw has eight singles flights and three doubles flights. Play starts at 9 a.m. each day, doubles open Friday, and finals are Sunday. Mercyhurst joins Chicago State, FDU, Le Moyne, LIU, Stonehill and Wagner, along with New Haven, which is entered on the women's side only.
Men's team
YSU Invitational (Sept. 12-13, Youngstown, Ohio): The Lakers opened their fall with 10 players in singles across three flights. Petar Belosevic had the top result in A flight, beating third-seeded Aril Kayra Tuna of Duquesne 6-3, 4-6, 10-6 before losing to YSU's Oscar Gippet in the quarterfinals. David Mengher pushed top-seeded Lenn Stueckrath of YSU to a second-set tiebreak before losing 6-2, 7-6(4).
Tom Oliver reached the B flight quarterfinals, advancing when top seed Mihai Haita of YSU retired. Francisco Sanchez reached the C flight quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Marquette's Marcos Vazquez. In doubles, Oliver and Mykhailo Polishchuck reached the B-flight semifinals and lost 7-6(8) to Case Western Reserve's Luke Saylor and Konrad Kwiatkowski, who went on to the final.
Seahawk Fall Invitational (Sept. 18-20, Wilmington, N.C.): Seven Lakers played at Porters Neck Country Club against UNCW, William & Mary, Queens, Presbyterian and North Carolina A&T. Belosevic finished strongest, taking the West bracket of the A2 flight. He beat North Carolina A&T's Josh Collidor by withdrawal in the semifinals, then led Queens' Miguel Maia 6-2 in the final when Maia retired.
Derek Winsnes had the Lakers' best completed singles win of the weekend, 6-3, 6-1 over third-seeded Thomas Anderson of Presbyterian in the C flight quarterfinals. He lost to second-seeded Hamilton Huitt of Queens in the semifinals. Mengher took the first set from second-seeded Gavin Ryan of Queens, 7-6(1), in the B2 West semifinals before losing in a match tiebreak. Julius Damaske lost the B1 South final to Queens' Diego Jimenez Gomez 4-6, 6-2, 18-16 in a match tiebreak.
In doubles, Belosevic and Daniel Stadler reached the A-flight West final, where they lost to Queens' Jan Montero Diaz and Noe Villen. Oliver, partnered with Queens' Filippo Scala, reached the B-flight East semifinals.
Women's team
The Lakers opened their fall at the Allegheny Invitational in Meadville on Sept. 5-6, and three players never lost. Seniors Daria Rogova and sophomores Celeste Davis and Ellyana Jacobs each won all three of their singles matches. Rogova was a second-team All-NEC selection last spring.
Freshman Variance Horn-Bourque won both of her singles matches on day one, and senior Kateryna Kryuchkova finished 2-0. Senior Mollie Gray added a win on each day, and freshman Astrid White also picked up a singles win.
The doubles teams were just as strong. Rogova and Kryuchkova went 2-0, as did White and Jacobs, and Davis and Horn-Bourque also finished 2-0.
Looking ahead
After Binghamton, the men head to the Gold Invitational at Navy (Oct. 9-11), the ITA Championship in Princeton, N.J. (Oct. 15-20) and the Cleveland State Invite (Oct. 30-Nov. 1). The women are also at the ITA Championship (Oct. 15-20), followed by the Cleveland State Invite (Oct. 23-25).
How to follow: Draws, live scoring and streaming links are posted by Binghamton at binghamtonbearcats.com
