Holland, Mich. — The Aquinas men's and women's tennis teams continued its fall season on Friday (Sept. 15) and Saturday (Sept. 16) at the Hope Invitational. The two-day tournament feature five different bracket-style competitions for both the men and women: "A" singles, "B" singles, "C" singles, "A" doubles, "B" doubles.
Here is how each of the competition fared for the Saints.
MEN
"A" Singles:
Josep Coll Llopis won four straight matches to reach the final, but sadly an injury forced him to retire during the championship match and finish runner-up to Trine's Sammy Yin.
Tom Gangov, who got a first round bye, lost his first match in the Round of 16 but battled back with two wins the consolation bracket before getting knocked out by Cornerstone's Daniel Alfaro.
"B" Singles: Both of AQ's competitors,
Mariano Arroyo and
Jackson VanBergen, won their opening Round of 32 match. VanBergen lost a tight 8-7 (7-0) Round of 16 match to Ohio Northern's Kavya Desai. Arroyo got one round further but bowed after a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Hope's Cooper Nugent in the quarterfinals.
"C" Singles: Freshman
Josh Chlebek won his opening match 8-5 over Wisconsin Lutheran's TaDarion Parkins. However, he was elminated by Hope's Hunter Napieralski, 8-1, in the Round of 16.
Brandon McEachern, who got a bye to the Round of 16, also won his first match but suffered the same fate as Chlebek when Napieralski also went on to beat him in the quarterfinals.
"A" Doubles: No Aquinas participates.
"B" Doubles: VanBergen and McEachern went 1-1 to be eliminated in the Round of 16. While
Mariano Arroyo and Chlebek went 0-2 with a pair of 8-5 and 8-4 defeats.
WOMEN
"A" Singles:
Carlota Arzabe and
Sofia Gomez both didn't have much luck and were unable to take advantage of the bye that both got to the Round of 16. Neither one managed to win a singles match, but they found better success working together in the "A" doubles.
"B" Singles: The Saints were unable to turn things around in the second-tier division either.
Ruth Rabaut and
Hannah Lourido each went winless. Lourdio had the closest match in the Round of 32 when she lost 8-6 to Trine's Haley Straub.
"C" Singles: Three Saints played in the third division:
Megan Hearn,
Kayla Kodan and
Alyssa Jack. Hearn swept Kalamazoo College's Regan McKee in the Round of 32, before dropping a hard-fought 8-6 decision to Saint Mary's Hannah Gerner in the Round of 16. Kodan and Jack each lost their their opening match, but Jack managed to rebound with two wins in the consolation bracket. By knocking off Tillie Sheldon (Kalamazoo) and Alicia Hunt (Trine), Jack got the consolation semifinals. However, she was unable to dethrone the eventual consolation champion Kamryn Dumas (Hope), who also eliminated Kodan to begin consolation play.
"A" Doubles: Gomez and Arzabe lost a heart-breaking 8-7 (7-0) bout in the Round of 16 to drop to the consolation bracket. Taking a negative and turning it into a positive, Gomez and Arzabe rallied and won four straight matches to be named consolation champions. They first went through Madison Wei/Mallory Matthews (Hope), 8-5, followed by Daniela Fernandez/Jadyn Koenes (Cornerstone), 8-5, then Eleni Bougioukou/Olivia Wolfe (Kalamazoo), 8-1, and lastly Catherine Grissom/Rachel Grissom (Calvin), 8-5, in the title match.
"B" Doubles: The AQ doubles pair of Hearn/Jack made it to the "B" semifinals after a couple of wins. They lost 8-2 to the eventual champions Marina Nonto Ribeiro and Averi Lewis from Calvin in the final four. Lourido/Rabaut managed to win a consolation quarterfinal before being eliminated. It was the first collegiate win for freshmen Lourido and Rabaut.
Both AQ men's and women's tennis teams are scheduled to play an alumni game on Saturday (Sept. 30) at the Gainey Athletic Complex. Both programs return to competitive action on Oct. 6 with a road match against NCAA Division II Grand Valley State.
