WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Longwood University men's tennis team competed at the Wake Forest Fall Invitational hosted by Wake Forest University of the Atlantic Coast Conference on October 12-14 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Lancers were led by sophomores
Harry Kelleher|Sydney, Australia (St. Aloysius College) (2-2) and
Steed Johnson|Ahoskie, N.C. (Needham B. Broughton) (2-2) in singles competition, while Johnson and freshman teammate
James Fudge|Kaarst, Germany (Millfield School, England) went 1-2 in doubles play. Longwood will return to action on October 18-22 at the USTA/ITA Regional Championships hosted by the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
“This tournament was the toughest challenge for us so far this fall,” said head coach
Jakob Gustafsson. “Several of the nation's top ranked schools were playing in this tournament, so we faced some tough competition. This is the kind of tournament we need to play if we want to discover our level of potential. With an injury to the team, the rest of the players had to play up one extra level and we still had several opportunities to close out some sets and matches, but fell short a few times. We did play better as the tournament went on, as we got used to this higher level of competition. With this being our third tournament this fall, we can see where we have come from, the level we are at now, and finally the level we want to get to. I believe we are now ready to face the top players in the region at our final tournament starting this Thursday.”
Kelleher defeated Will Albright of UNC Greensboro (6-4, 6-2) in his C singles opening round match before losing his quarterfinal match to Michael Reilly of UNC Wilmington (6-4, 6-2). He then fell to Taylor Meyer of the University of North Carolina (6-3, 6-1), but beat Connor Evins of Davidson College (6-3, 3-6, 6-4) in three sets to take seventh in his flight. Johnson dropped his D2 singles first round match to Jorge Azuero of Liberty University (7-5, 6-1), as well as his consolation quarterfinal match against Chris Geaslen of Elon University (7-6, 1-6, 6-2), before earning back-to-back wins against Jimmy Roueche of UNCG (6-4, 6-4) and Longwood teammate Fudge (6-0, 6-1) to earn 13th place.
Sophomore Dan Elston|St. Austell, Cornwall, England (Ralph Allen School) fell to Matt Browne of Furman University (6-3, 7-6(4)) in the first round of C singles action, before losing to Zach Hublits of UNCW (6-2, 6-4) in his consolation quarterfinal, beating Igor Braga of Norfolk State University (6-3, 6-4) in the place for 13th first round and losing to Danny Mack of UNCG (6-3, 7-6 (4)) in the 13th-place final. Senior
Giorgi Khmiadashvili|Tbilisi, Georgia (Public School 148) lost to Dave Thompson of North Carolina State University (6-5, retired) in the opening round of A singles competition before withdrawing from the tournament due to an injury.
In D1 singles, freshman
Bharani Sankar|Glen Allen, Va. (Deep Run) went 1-3, while junior
Edward Becker|Sydney, Australia (Manly Selective Campus) went 0-3. Sankar lost to Sergio Mourelo of Liberty (6-3, 7-6) in the first round and defeated Kent Austin of NSU (6-0, 6-1) in the consolation quarterfinal, before falling to Alex Howard of Davidson (6-0, 6-0) and Guillem Secanel of Liberty (6-1, 6-4). Becker dropped decisions against Darragh Glavin of Old Dominion University (6-3, 2-6, 6-3), Secanel (6-3, 6-3) and Ismael Sanches of Elon (7-6, 6-3). In D2 singles action, Fudge finished with a 1-3 record, with his win coming in his place for 13th first round match against Josiah Boda of Liberty (6-3, 3-6, 7-6(8))
Johnson and Fudge (1-2) had a C doubles loss to Davidson (8-4) and a consolation quarterfinal loss to ETSU (8-6) before defeating Liberty (8-3) to finish 13th. Also in C doubles, Elston and Sankar (0-3) lost to NSU (9-7) in the first round, before falling to Richmond (8-5) in the consolation semifinal and ETSU (9-7) in the 11th-place match. In A doubles action, Kelleher and Becker (0-4) dropped an opening round decision to Wake Forest (8-4), a consolation quarterfinal decision to NSU (9-7), a 13th-place first round decision to UNCG (8-4) and a final round decision to Davidson (8-5).
