Jacob Jardel
Assistant Managing Editor
@JJardel_Writing
Aggie Tennis hit the court for the ITA Regional Championships Sept. 26-28 in Wichita Falls.
Both the men and women’s teams fielded entries into the tournament. On the men’s side, seven singles competitors and three doubles teams vied for the tournament title, while the women’s draw featured six Aggies in the singles division and three teams in doubles.
In men’s singles competition, junior Joao Fazendeiro was the last Aggie on the court in the tournament, reaching the final round of the men’s singles tournament before falling to champion Kyle Davidson of Midwestern State.
Fazendeiro had won 12 consecutive individual matches dating back to last season, five of which coming in a three-day span. The unranked Aggie faced off against the sixth-ranked Davidson, losing in straight sets 6-1, 6-4.
Junior Dennis Merdan, senior Angelo Lencioni and sophomore Felipe Oyarzun all finished early on Saturday with losses in the round of 16. Merdan pushed Midwestern’s Matt Tyer to the limit in both sets, losing 7-6, 7-5. Lencioni also lost in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0.
Freshman Iustin Baciu went 1-1 on Friday, exiting the tournament in his second match, a 6-2, 6-0 loss. Freshman Artavazd Knyazyan dropped his first match in three sets but came back to win his first back draw match before losing his final match in three sets.
Senior Dean Weigelt also lost his opening match and exited the tournament after a 7-5, 6-4 straight sets loss in his second back draw match.
On the women’s side, junior Angie Torres had the best finish of the Lady Aggies, making her way to the singles semifinal before falling in three sets to Midwestern’s Kayla Casey.
The ninth-ranked Torres dropped the first set of the match against third-seed Casey 6-3. Torres rallied back to win a hotly contested second set 7-6 before falling in the third 6-2.
Sophomores Paula Gutierrez and Samantha Wood made it as far as the quarterfinals before losing their respective matches. Gutierrez lost her match in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, as did Wood, 6-4, 6-0.
Freshmen Dejana Veljic and Eugenia Sanchez fell in their first round matches and their respective back draw matches, as did sophomore Magdalena Kovinic.
In the women’s doubles draw, the team of Gutierrez and Torres made their way to the quarterfinals on Saturday morning before dropping an 8-2 match to a team from St. Edward’s University.
Veljic/Kovinic lost their opening round match 8-2, while Wood/Sanchez fell in a close 8-6 opening match. Both teams would also lose in the Friday night back draw bracket.
Cameron’s men’s doubles teams were also ousted on the first day of competition. Merdan/Oyarzun dropped their opening round match 9-7. The team of freshman Florian Kartner and junior Andres Velasco lost their second round matchup 9-8, while Baciu/Fazendeiro fell 8-5 in their second round matchup.
The Aggie tennis teams will be on a four-month hiatus, picking up the season again in Feb. 2015.