JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Abilene Christian men's tennis team began its run at the Conference Individual Tournament on Thursday, with two players winning first round matches and moving on to the round of 16.
Junior Dennis Dutiné and sophomore
Luis Jose Nakamine earned straight-set victories in their opening singles matches and advanced to Friday's second round at the University of North Florida Tennis Complex.
Dutiné defeated Rohan Loubser from Austin Peay, 6-3, 7-5 and will face tournament fourth seed Lachlan Brain from North Alabama on Friday at 10:30 a.m. CT.
Nakamine pushed past Eastern Kentucky's Fernando Bulnes Garrorena, 6-4, 6-4. Nakamine plays another North Alabama Lion -- seventh seed Alberto Altur -- in round two at the same time as Dutiné.
The men's singles quarterfinals are scheduled to begin Friday at 2 p.m. CT.
ACU's
Ethan Scribner and
Tomas Quesada also competed, but lost opening round singles matches and head to the consolation bracket. The Wildcats' two doubles pairs also lost in the round of 16 on Thursday.
The Wildcats, along with fellow WAC school UT Arlington, are competing in the Atlantic Sun for the 2025-26 season. Other schools taking part in the Conference Individual Tournament are North Alabama, North Florida, Bellarmine, Lipscomb, Florida Gulf Coast, Eastern Kentucky, Stetson and Austin Peay. Queens University of Charlotte is not participating.
The singles and doubles champions will represent the ASUN at the ITA Conference Masters Championships, which take place Nov. 6-9 in San Diego, Calif. Each NCAA Division I automatic qualifier-eligible conference will send its champions to take part in the ITA Conference Masters. The four singles semifinals, and the top three doubles pairs will then qualify for the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships.
Below are Thursday's results involving ACU players from the Conference Individual Tournament.
Doubles - Play-In Match
Nakamine / Scribner def. Sarda Marti / Padilla Cote (Stetson), 6-4
Doubles - Round of 16
Nice / Ramesh (Bellarmine) def. Nakamine / Scribner, 6-3
Altur / Orgiles (North Alabama) def. Quesda / Dutiné, 6-4
Singles - Qualifying Round
Enrique Pena (North Florida) def. Scribner, 7-5, 7-5
Singles - Round of 32
Alex Despoja (North Alabama) def. Quesda, 1-6, 6-3, 1-0 [12-10]
Dutiné def. Rohan Loubser (Austin Peay), 6-3, 7-5
Nakamine def. Fernando Bulnes Garrorena (Eastern Kentucky), 6-4, 6-4
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