Friday, September 16
Midland, TX
Abilene Christian
at
Racquet Club Invitational
Three Events On Weekend Docket
9/15/2011 12:40:00 PM | Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis
ABILENE – The Abilene Christian men's and women's tennis teams will be split between three locations this weekend as they continue preparing for the upcoming ITA South Central Regional later this month.
Recently crowned 2011 Aggie Invitational singles champion Hans Hach, senior Nick Plum, and junior twin sisters Julia and Laura Mongin will be competing at the Midland (Texas) Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational, while the rest of the women's team will head to Oklahoma for the second-annual Sooner Fall Invitational.
The men's team will venture to A&M-Corpus Christi for the first-ever collegiate competition at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Center for the third-annual Islanders Open. The tournament features a full 32-player singles draw, a 16-team doubles draw, and players from Houston, Lamar, UT-San Antonio and Tyler Junior College.
The field at the Sooner Fall Invitational will include teams representing Tulsa, Texas-Arlington, SMU, Arkansas-Little Rock, North Texas, Texas Tech and Armstrong Atlantic.
“There's a lot of tough competition for us this weekend and we definitely won't have any easy matches,” head coach Hutton Jones said. “But if we don't play these kind of matches now then we won't know how to compete at the higher levels of DII come the spring.”
Julia Mongin returns to the Midland tournament as its defending singles champion. As a sophomore last season she became the first unseeded player in five years to win the tournament, knocking off players from Penn State, Pepperdine, Texas-Arlington, Texas A&M, Rice and Tulsa.
Mongin rallied to beat Dominque Harmath of Rice in the semifinals, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, and then captured the championship with a convincing victory over Tulsa's Jo-Anne Karaitian, 6-1, 6-4.
Last weekend, however, the Mongin sisters and their teammates were denied additional fall championships after running into a well-stocked side from Stephen F. Austin, whose players went 15-0 in singles and 8-1 in doubles.
“We usually play SFA a lot closer, but they're a lot better now with some good international players on their team … I think they're the favorites to win the Southland,” Jones said. “We got pushed a bit, but also had a fair share of success and I'm excited to see what we can do this weekend.”
Wildcat highlights at the SFA Invitational included Brittney Reed and Madelyn Walker reaching the finals of their respective singles flights, and the Mongin sisters winning their first two A-flight matches before being bested by the top-seeded Ladyjack duo of Tereza Bekerova and Malena Gordo, 8-5.
Jones also came away impressed by the performance of sophomore Micha Hermsdorf in her first-round match vs. nationally ranked Alina Shazhko. Hermsdorf split the first two sets with Shazhko before falling 10-8 in the third-set tiebreaker.
“Micah was one of our bright spots,” he said. “She won the second set after dropping the first, and then lost by a close score in the tiebreak. She's come back to our team in great shape after learning a lot about fitness during her freshman year, and I've been as impressed as anybody by what she's accomplished.”
On the men's side last weekend, Hach became the first Wildcat in singles or doubles to win a championship at the New Mexico State Aggie Invitational. Hach and five of his teammates were all entered in a single 32-person bracket from which he won five straight matches over opponents from Arizona, New Mexico and New Mexico State.
None of Hach's victories came easy, and all but one was against an opponent who previously defeated one of his teammates. Both Nick Plum and Alfredo Desiati challenged New Mexico's Sammy Iftikhar – who Hach beat in the finals – in three sets through rounds one and two, but each time he came back from a set down.
Hach went on to best Iftikhar, 7-6, 6-1, giving him five straight matches with at least one 7-6 set decision.
“Hans may not have played well by his own standards,” Jones said, “but I felt he played smart and tough for the first tournament of the season. There were no easy rounds and if you look at the set scores there were no 6-1's or 6-0's for him. He had a lot of 7-6 sets, and if you drop one of those you don't always know where the match is headed. Momentum can be a funny thing.”
Updates from the men's tournament at Corpus Christi will be available on the Islanders Tennis Twitter account (@IslandersTennis) and complete wrap-ups of the day will be available on GoIslanders.com.
Additional information on the women's tennis invitational at Oklahoma can be found at SoonerSports.com.
Information from GoIslanders.com and SoonerSports.com used in this release.
Recently crowned 2011 Aggie Invitational singles champion Hans Hach, senior Nick Plum, and junior twin sisters Julia and Laura Mongin will be competing at the Midland (Texas) Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational, while the rest of the women's team will head to Oklahoma for the second-annual Sooner Fall Invitational.
The men's team will venture to A&M-Corpus Christi for the first-ever collegiate competition at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Center for the third-annual Islanders Open. The tournament features a full 32-player singles draw, a 16-team doubles draw, and players from Houston, Lamar, UT-San Antonio and Tyler Junior College.
The field at the Sooner Fall Invitational will include teams representing Tulsa, Texas-Arlington, SMU, Arkansas-Little Rock, North Texas, Texas Tech and Armstrong Atlantic.
“There's a lot of tough competition for us this weekend and we definitely won't have any easy matches,” head coach Hutton Jones said. “But if we don't play these kind of matches now then we won't know how to compete at the higher levels of DII come the spring.”
Julia Mongin returns to the Midland tournament as its defending singles champion. As a sophomore last season she became the first unseeded player in five years to win the tournament, knocking off players from Penn State, Pepperdine, Texas-Arlington, Texas A&M, Rice and Tulsa.
Mongin rallied to beat Dominque Harmath of Rice in the semifinals, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, and then captured the championship with a convincing victory over Tulsa's Jo-Anne Karaitian, 6-1, 6-4.
Last weekend, however, the Mongin sisters and their teammates were denied additional fall championships after running into a well-stocked side from Stephen F. Austin, whose players went 15-0 in singles and 8-1 in doubles.
“We usually play SFA a lot closer, but they're a lot better now with some good international players on their team … I think they're the favorites to win the Southland,” Jones said. “We got pushed a bit, but also had a fair share of success and I'm excited to see what we can do this weekend.”
Wildcat highlights at the SFA Invitational included Brittney Reed and Madelyn Walker reaching the finals of their respective singles flights, and the Mongin sisters winning their first two A-flight matches before being bested by the top-seeded Ladyjack duo of Tereza Bekerova and Malena Gordo, 8-5.
Jones also came away impressed by the performance of sophomore Micha Hermsdorf in her first-round match vs. nationally ranked Alina Shazhko. Hermsdorf split the first two sets with Shazhko before falling 10-8 in the third-set tiebreaker.
“Micah was one of our bright spots,” he said. “She won the second set after dropping the first, and then lost by a close score in the tiebreak. She's come back to our team in great shape after learning a lot about fitness during her freshman year, and I've been as impressed as anybody by what she's accomplished.”
On the men's side last weekend, Hach became the first Wildcat in singles or doubles to win a championship at the New Mexico State Aggie Invitational. Hach and five of his teammates were all entered in a single 32-person bracket from which he won five straight matches over opponents from Arizona, New Mexico and New Mexico State.
None of Hach's victories came easy, and all but one was against an opponent who previously defeated one of his teammates. Both Nick Plum and Alfredo Desiati challenged New Mexico's Sammy Iftikhar – who Hach beat in the finals – in three sets through rounds one and two, but each time he came back from a set down.
Hach went on to best Iftikhar, 7-6, 6-1, giving him five straight matches with at least one 7-6 set decision.
“Hans may not have played well by his own standards,” Jones said, “but I felt he played smart and tough for the first tournament of the season. There were no easy rounds and if you look at the set scores there were no 6-1's or 6-0's for him. He had a lot of 7-6 sets, and if you drop one of those you don't always know where the match is headed. Momentum can be a funny thing.”
Updates from the men's tournament at Corpus Christi will be available on the Islanders Tennis Twitter account (@IslandersTennis) and complete wrap-ups of the day will be available on GoIslanders.com.
Additional information on the women's tennis invitational at Oklahoma can be found at SoonerSports.com.
Information from GoIslanders.com and SoonerSports.com used in this release.
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