Thursday, October 16
Waco, TX
8 a.m.
Abilene Christian
at
ITA Regionals
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
Photo by: Gary Rhodes
Wildcat tennis scores quality victories at USTA/ITA Texas Regionals
10/21/2014 3:20:00 PM | Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis
ABILENE - Abilene Christian's tennis program exited the USTA/ITA Texas Regional Championships with 17 victories and had its weekend highlighted by the doubles team of senior Guilherme Gesser and sophomore Nico Agritelley, which made it all the way to the main draw quarterfinals.
Given a first-round bye, Agritelley and Gesser started their run by doubling up the Incarnate Word duo of Joey Vatanadilok and Tucker Brown, 8-4, and then they pulled off a huge upset in downing the sixth-seeded Texas A&M Aggies of A.J. Catanzariti and Max Lunkin, 8-5.
Catanzariti - a freshman - is currently ranked 25th in doubles with partner Jackson Withrow. Lunkin, meanwhile, is a sophomore with seven doubles victories under his belt this fall.
"We knew going in against the A&M guys in the round of 16 that we could hang with them if we executed our game plan," said Agritelley on ACU's Wildcat Coaches' Show. "And we did. We held our serve. Kept the ball the down the line and cross court. I think we kept them guessing."
"Men's tennis is more serve dominated," added head coach Hutton Jones, "and the team from A&M gave us some looks at second serves and we made them pay. We caught a break or two early on before taking control of the match."
Agritelley's and Gesser's victory put them into the quarterfinals against the nation's No. 5 team and top-seeded Nick Chappell and Will Stein of TCU. And the Horned Frogs arrived locked in against the Wildcats after narrowly escaping with an 8-7 win over Texas Tech's Jolan Cailleau and Nicholas Melott in the Round of 16.
"They appeared to be more than a little motivated by their previous result," said Jones, "and we didn't come out serving well. We got broke the first game and you just can't afford to do that in a pro set. They had about a 30 minute break in between matches and were just ripping their serves."
On the other side of the doubles bracket, Wildcats Marco Bensley and Paul Domanski registered two wins before being eliminated in the Round of 16 by the eventual champions from Baylor, Antonio Lupieri and Felipe Rios, 8-6.
The unseeded Bears followed their win over ACU with an 8-7 decision over fourth-seeded Jeremy Efferding and Jordan Szabo of Texas A&M, and upended the TCU duo in the finals, 1-6, 6-2, 10-7.
As for Bensley and Domanski, they got things started with a convincing 8-2 triumph over Aggies Francisco Colung and Max Montague in the Round of 64 followed by an 8-7 upset of eighth-seeded Joel Rubio and Tomas Stillman of UTSA. Both Rubio and Stillman are seniors this season for the Roadrunners.
In singles, the ACU men collected just two victories and both were against opposition from Texas Tech. Agritelley defeated Merlott, 6-3, 6-0 if the first round and was then knocked off, 7-6, 6-3 by Rice's No. 1 Srikar Alla. Freshman Brad Gleason beat Red Raider Hunter Holman, 6-4, 6-3 before falling to 10th-seeded Adrien Berkowicz of Texas, 6-1, 6-1.
On the women's side, first-round main draw wins were attained by freshman Lucile Pothier, who held off UTA's Jessica Birowski, 6-4, 0-6, 6-4, and junior Kaysie Hermsdorf, who edged Rice's Alison Ho, 7-6 (2) and 7-6 (4). In the following round, Pothier was eliminated by the tournament's No. 1 seed Breaunna Addison of Texas, 6-0, 6-4, while Hermsdorf lost to Alexis Pereira of TCU, 6-3, 6-4.
The Wildcats experienced additional success in the consolation draw led by senior Brittney Reed, who advanced all the way to the quarterfinals after coming back from a set down to beat Ana Cordero of North Texas, 3-6, 6-3, 10-6. She then received a bye in the next round due to an opponent's injury before falling in a close match to Rice's Lindsey Hodge, 7-6 (6), 6-2.
Also winning once in the consolation draw were Wildcats Carli Knezevich, Erin Walker, Whitney Williams and Nada Marjanovic.
Reed and Walker had a first-round bye in doubles and benefitted from an injury to the seventh-seeded Texas A&M team of Saska Gavrilovska and Eva Paalma in the Round of 32. That withdrawal put the Wildcats into the Round of 16, where they defeated Rice's Savannah Durkin and Solomiy Zinko, 8-4.
Reed and Walker, however, lost their quarterfinal match to Hristina Dishkova and Holly Verner of SMU, 8-3.
"We have a very young program this year, so I was pumped to see the belief factor in ourselves operating at a high level," said Jones. "We all came out there with a plan and competed well from point-to-point. And even though we weren't always the better team, I felt we were always within range and there was always an opportunity for victory. I'm very excited about the foundation we're building here."
Wildcat tennis concludes its fall season in two weeks with a trip to Phoenix, Ariz., for the Grand Canyon Invitational.
Given a first-round bye, Agritelley and Gesser started their run by doubling up the Incarnate Word duo of Joey Vatanadilok and Tucker Brown, 8-4, and then they pulled off a huge upset in downing the sixth-seeded Texas A&M Aggies of A.J. Catanzariti and Max Lunkin, 8-5.
Catanzariti - a freshman - is currently ranked 25th in doubles with partner Jackson Withrow. Lunkin, meanwhile, is a sophomore with seven doubles victories under his belt this fall.
"We knew going in against the A&M guys in the round of 16 that we could hang with them if we executed our game plan," said Agritelley on ACU's Wildcat Coaches' Show. "And we did. We held our serve. Kept the ball the down the line and cross court. I think we kept them guessing."
"Men's tennis is more serve dominated," added head coach Hutton Jones, "and the team from A&M gave us some looks at second serves and we made them pay. We caught a break or two early on before taking control of the match."
Agritelley's and Gesser's victory put them into the quarterfinals against the nation's No. 5 team and top-seeded Nick Chappell and Will Stein of TCU. And the Horned Frogs arrived locked in against the Wildcats after narrowly escaping with an 8-7 win over Texas Tech's Jolan Cailleau and Nicholas Melott in the Round of 16.
"They appeared to be more than a little motivated by their previous result," said Jones, "and we didn't come out serving well. We got broke the first game and you just can't afford to do that in a pro set. They had about a 30 minute break in between matches and were just ripping their serves."
On the other side of the doubles bracket, Wildcats Marco Bensley and Paul Domanski registered two wins before being eliminated in the Round of 16 by the eventual champions from Baylor, Antonio Lupieri and Felipe Rios, 8-6.
The unseeded Bears followed their win over ACU with an 8-7 decision over fourth-seeded Jeremy Efferding and Jordan Szabo of Texas A&M, and upended the TCU duo in the finals, 1-6, 6-2, 10-7.
As for Bensley and Domanski, they got things started with a convincing 8-2 triumph over Aggies Francisco Colung and Max Montague in the Round of 64 followed by an 8-7 upset of eighth-seeded Joel Rubio and Tomas Stillman of UTSA. Both Rubio and Stillman are seniors this season for the Roadrunners.
In singles, the ACU men collected just two victories and both were against opposition from Texas Tech. Agritelley defeated Merlott, 6-3, 6-0 if the first round and was then knocked off, 7-6, 6-3 by Rice's No. 1 Srikar Alla. Freshman Brad Gleason beat Red Raider Hunter Holman, 6-4, 6-3 before falling to 10th-seeded Adrien Berkowicz of Texas, 6-1, 6-1.
On the women's side, first-round main draw wins were attained by freshman Lucile Pothier, who held off UTA's Jessica Birowski, 6-4, 0-6, 6-4, and junior Kaysie Hermsdorf, who edged Rice's Alison Ho, 7-6 (2) and 7-6 (4). In the following round, Pothier was eliminated by the tournament's No. 1 seed Breaunna Addison of Texas, 6-0, 6-4, while Hermsdorf lost to Alexis Pereira of TCU, 6-3, 6-4.
The Wildcats experienced additional success in the consolation draw led by senior Brittney Reed, who advanced all the way to the quarterfinals after coming back from a set down to beat Ana Cordero of North Texas, 3-6, 6-3, 10-6. She then received a bye in the next round due to an opponent's injury before falling in a close match to Rice's Lindsey Hodge, 7-6 (6), 6-2.
Also winning once in the consolation draw were Wildcats Carli Knezevich, Erin Walker, Whitney Williams and Nada Marjanovic.
Reed and Walker had a first-round bye in doubles and benefitted from an injury to the seventh-seeded Texas A&M team of Saska Gavrilovska and Eva Paalma in the Round of 32. That withdrawal put the Wildcats into the Round of 16, where they defeated Rice's Savannah Durkin and Solomiy Zinko, 8-4.
Reed and Walker, however, lost their quarterfinal match to Hristina Dishkova and Holly Verner of SMU, 8-3.
"We have a very young program this year, so I was pumped to see the belief factor in ourselves operating at a high level," said Jones. "We all came out there with a plan and competed well from point-to-point. And even though we weren't always the better team, I felt we were always within range and there was always an opportunity for victory. I'm very excited about the foundation we're building here."
Wildcat tennis concludes its fall season in two weeks with a trip to Phoenix, Ariz., for the Grand Canyon Invitational.
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