The men’s tennis tournament, held this past weekend in Fredericksburg, Va. at the University of Mary Washington, marked the end of Elizabethtown College’s men’s brief fall tennis season.
On Sunday, Sept. 28, during the Blue 1 Doubles, senior Michael Cannon and sophomore Alex Machalick launched the team into the USTA-ITA Southeast Regional Championships.
Washington College’s Matt Katz and Jermy Novick and Ferrum College’s Garrett Freese and Taylor Napier gave Cannon and Machalick a run for their money, but Etown pulled through with 8-6 wins after having a previous setback of 8-2. Finally, in the third-place playoff, Cannon and Machalick kept a close tie with Muhlenberg College’s Mickey Schindler and Neil Shulman, but in the end, fell behind by two points 9-7.
“The entire team played well against stiff competition this weekend,” Cannon said. “ITAs is always a tough tournament, and I was happy about how the team performed. It was a great way to end the fall season.”
Also in doubles, sophomore Nathan Dowling and first-year Michael Yost won their consolation match battling James Loftis and Kyle VanWinter from St. Mary’s College of Maryland with a score of 8-5.
Another victory was in singles, with junior Evan Hinkley defeating Hampden-Sydney College’s Lawrence Bowers for the spot in the quarterfinals of the Blue 5 bracket. In the quarters, Hinkley lost against Salisbury University’s Noah Orders with an ending score of 1-6.
Etown saw a lot of victory when it came to the consolation quarterfinal matches in singles. Machalick challenged Hampden-Sydney College’s Trent Singleton and came out on top to win the consolation quarterfinal match at Blue 4 with scores of 2-6, 6-1, 12-10. Karmin Fahmy from Penn State Harrisburg battled against Dowling (Blue 6) with the Jays coming out 8-4.
Also, Yost (Blue 7) won against Monte Dunson of Penn State Altoona by 8-4. The score of 8-4 was the lucky score of the day, since both Dowling and Yost won their quarterfinal matches with that score. “The amount and level of talent there was higher than I’m used to seeing,” Michalick said. “Almost every team there was very strong and made the level of competition very high no matter what draw you were in.”
The winning streak did not follow Michalick, Dowling or Yost to the semifinal matches, though. All of the men were beaten by their rivals during these matches. Maybe that 8-4 score wasn’t the luckiest after all.
Next spring, at the beginning of March, the Blue Jays will head to Helton Head Island, S.C. where their new tennis season will begin.