SAINT PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s tennis team hosted the ITA Midwest Region Championships over the weekend and had a number of notable performances, but came up just short of qualifying for the ITA Cup.
Nineteen Gusties competed in the ITA singles draw and every one of them won their first round match. Nick Aney (Sr., Rochester), Marco Siviero (Fy., Sao Miguel de Oeste, Brazil), Drew Elofson (Sr., Saint Peter), Caleb Fridinger (So., Woodbury), Indraneel Raut (Sr., Oshkosh, Wis.), and Daniel Fouchier (Jr., Nootdorp, Netherlands) all made it to the quarterfinals with Elofson and Raut advancing to the semifinals, but both fell short of reaching the championship match. Elofson defeated Siviero 4-6, 6-3, 10-7 in the quarters, while Raut beat Fridinger 6-2, 6-3. Elofson then lost to Zakowski of UW-Whitewater 6-4, 6-2, and Raut lost to Lindwall of UW-Whitewater 6-2, 2-6, 10-3.
Zakowski and Lindwall will compete Monday morning for the singles title.
In the ITA doubles draw, eight Gustie tandems competed in the field of 64 teams and seven won their first round match. The teams of Aney/Alex Budde (Jr., Menomonee Falls, Wis.) and Fouchier/Sourabh Terakanambi (Jr., Apple Valley) both made it to the semifinals, but both lost by decisions of 8-7.
Zakowski and Gray of UW-Whitewater won the doubles title with a 5-7, 6-3, 10-5 win over Motlojoa and Loen of Luther.
“The guys put together a great weekend,” Head Coach Tommy Valentini said. “Of course we had hoped for some different results at the end of the day on Sunday. But our opponents played very well, and when we faced adversity and challenges with things happening that were outside of our control, I was extremely proud of how well everyone on our team – especially the guys competing at the end of the day on Sunday – lived out our values. We also can’t lose sight of the positive results we did have. Justin Sehlin and Geoffrey Youngs played beautifully to win the Midwest Open doubles title, and Drew Elofson made a brilliant run to the ITA singles semifinals, and Neel Raut was solid all weekend to get that far as well. We were able to advance 19 out of 19 singles players into the second round of the ITA singles and had six of the eight quarterfinalists there. In doubles, seven out our eight doubles teams moved into the second round of the ITA doubles draw, and we had great looks at winning both semifinals with both Aney/Budde and Fouchier/Terakanambi.
“We will take a lot of positives out of the weekend, and grow as players and as a team from everything that took place. I’m sure our guys will get to work in the in-between season – as we have a lot of exciting opportunities ahead of us in the spring. I also want to thank all of our tournament committee, our officials, our athletic trainers and sports information staff, our Swanson Tennis Center staff, all our visiting coaches and, most of all, our assistant coaches in our program for their help and support this weekend. The weather made for some challenges in pulling off an event of this scope, and everyone pulled together to make it happen.”
Gustavus now breaks from competition through the first half of winter and will resume play in February.