The men’s tennis team had an eventful weekend at the ITA Northeast Regional Championships at Vassar College. The trip was highlighted by juniors Thanos Kantarelis and Eric Hansen, who took home the doubles title.
By winning the regional championship, they now qualify for the national championship that is held later in October in Florida.
They started their run by beating McDonald and Slattery of St. Lawrence University, 8-4. Following that match, they defeated Kabra and Tehven of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 8-5. In the quarterfinals, they dominated Ferriere and Ball of The College of New Jersey, 8-0, then beat Patil and Mattelson of host Vassar, 8-5, in the semifinal round of competition. They took the trophy home by defeating Dwyer and Satkowski of St. Lawrence, 8-5.
The other doubles teams didn’t have the same luck, but still did reasonably well in competition. Mike Burger and Brian Bowman advanced to the second round and lost to Bawa and Rusinkiewicz of Stevens Tech, 8-4.
Jeff Titcombe and Aaron Gettinger played a highly contested match and eventually lost to Bratt and Goodman of SUNY Oneonta, 9-8, in the first round.
In the singles draw, Thanos Kantarelis went the furthest by advancing to the round of 16. He cruised through the first two rounds with scores of 8-1 and 6-0, 7-5 but was beaten by Ferriere 6-2, 7-6 (3).
Aaron Gettinger lost in the second round 6-2, 6-2, while Burger, Titcombe and Bowman all fell in the first round. Burger and Bowman were both defeated 8-2, while Titcombe fell by an 8-4 score. All first round matches were shorted due to rain.
“We had a very good weekend,” Khvalina said. “One of our goals every fall is to qualify for Small College Nationals. We had a doubles team that did that by winning the regional tournament. They earned All-American accolades and a trip to Florida to play in the 8-team field with the other regional winners.”
The season ends next week Kantarelis and Hansen travel to Fort Myers, Fla. to compete against the best in the country.
Maystrovsky can be reached at dmaystro@campustimes.org.
