Spartans Off to Hot Start on Day One of USTA/ITA Central Regional Tournament
ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Case Western Reserve University men's tennis team continued its 2011 fall season competing on day one of the United States Tennis Association/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Central Regional Tournament on Friday, September 23. The event, featuring 30 teams from across the region, is being hosted by fellow University Athletic Association member Washington University-St. Louis.
The Spartans continue action during the four-day invitational tomorrow with doubles action beginning at 8:00 a.m and singles play at 10:30 a.m. CDT.
Play commenced on Friday morning with doubles action and the Spartans came out firing on all cylinders. The duos of freshman Will Drougas (Roanoke, Va./Salem) and sophomore Eric Klawitter (Arlington Heights, Ill./John Hershey), juniors Nicolas Howe (Shaker Heights, Ohio/Shaker Heights) and Kyle Gerber (Columbus, Ohio/St. Charles Prep), and junior Richard Brunsting (Nashville, Tenn./Montgomery Bell Academy) and senior Sean Carr (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington) each posted 2-0 marks.
Drougas and Klawitter provided the biggest upset of the morning. The duo knocked off the team of Tyler Cempre and Matt McErlean of Denison University, the top-seeded pair in the doubles competition, by an 8-6 score. They advanced to the final 16 via an 8-4 victory versus the team of David Devaney and Alex Harbert of Elmhurst College (Ill.) and will compete on Saturday morning against the Kenyon College duo of Colin Haas and Michael Razumovsky.
Seeded No. 9 in the draw, Howe and Gerber garnered an 8-2 victory versus Kenyon's Wade Heerboth and Luke Frisher. The pair then earned their spot in the final 16 with an 8-4 victory versus Patrick Cole and Mike Provenzano of Allegheny College (Pa.) and will square off on Saturday morning with the University of Chicago's Alexander Golovin and Jan Stefanski.
Picking up two wins, Brunsting and Carr bested the duo from Wheaton College (Ill.) of Miles Greenwald and David Buursma, 8-0, and quickly turned around to defeat Brian Piotrowski and Brian Sorich of Illinois Wesleyan University by an 8-2 tally. The pair will play the duo from Calvin College (Mich.) of Jarrod Brower and Phillip Reinken.
Also competing in doubles play was the Spartan tandem of senior Rohan Patel (Cincinnati, Ohio/Sycamore) and sophomore John Healey (Columbia, Md./Atholton). Seeded No. 4 in the draw, the pair earned a hard fought 9-8 (5) victory versus Denison's Tom Cawood and Jay Fovel before falling to the duo from Ohio Northern University of Joey Frank and Michael Kathary, 8-6.
Later in the day, the singles competition began and the eight individuals listed above each were victorious in their opening matches. In terms of seeding for the draw, Carr is the No. 5 seed, Healey is No. 14 seed, Drougas is No. 26 and Patel is the No. 29 seed.
In round two of singles play, Carr, Healey, Gerber and Drougas were each victorious to advance to round three. Freshman Bas Van Lent (Wexford, Pa./Pine-Richland) also won in the collegiate draw.
In all, a combined 286 of 288 scheduled matches were completed on day one of the tournament. Two singles matches that were in tie-breakers had to be suspended at midnight in the central time zone.
