FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina - The University of Mount Olive men's tennis team traveled to Fayetteville this past weekend for the Methodist Fall Invitational hosted by Methodist University. The Trojans claimed one singles champion title and had three runners-up while also excelling on the doubles side with one doubles championship team.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Mount Olive was one of five teams competing on the weekend. The other schools represented were Barton College, Averett University, Guilford College and the host Methodist University. UMO sent three doubles teams and eight athletes to compete in singles.
INSIDE THE RESULTS
The tournament began with doubles competition on Friday afternoon. Two UMO teams were placed in Flight 1 for the possibility of a UMO versus UMO championship match. Armando Ferreira and Christian Djonov took on a Methodist pair in the opening round and won 8-3 moving on to tackle the duo from Barton in round two. Ferreira and Djonov defeated the Bulldogs 8-4 to advance to the championship match on Saturday morning.
Trojans teammates Jack Middleton and Juan Arbelaez, who were also in Flight 1, defeated their opening round opponents from Guilford College 8-3 to also face a pair from Barton. Middleton and Arbelaez were downed in the second round by Savio and Gaydon of Barton and moved to a consolation bracket to determine the third-place Flight 1 team.
Come Saturday morning, the duo of Ferreira and Djonov defeated their second duo of Bulldogs 8-4 to win the Flight 1 Doubles title. Middleton and Arbelaez were not as fortunate as they fell in the third-place bracket to the Barton pair of Nordberg and Ryder.
Paul Sitkiewiez and Victor Nunez fell in their opening match of Flight 2, 8-3 to Barton's Agudelo and Petterson, but continued play in the consolation rounds to finish in fifth place overall. In the first round of consolation matches, Sitkiewiez and Nunez defeated Averett's Figueroa and Martheus in an 8-7 (4) tiebreaker and would face Methodist's Murray and Laney Saturday morning. The Trojan duo came ready to play Saturday and downed their opponents 8-3 to win the consolation bracket.
UMO's Gregory Normand played in a mixed doubles team with an athlete from Methodist University. The pair fell in their opening match in an 8-7 (4) tiebreaker to move into the consolation rounds. After having one match together under their belts, the pair defeated Methodist's McNamara and Holloway team 8-7 late Friday evening. Normand and his partner could not quite find their sync on Saturday morning however as the pair fell in the consolation championship match with an 8-7 (5) tiebreaker.
Moving into singles action, the Trojans saw one individual champion and three runners-up. Ferreira and Djonov were placed into Flight 1 with another chance of a UMO versus UMO match-up. Ferreira breezed through his first and second-round matches win each match 8-2 over a Methodist and Barton athlete respectively. Djonov defeated Guilford's Robb 8-2 and moved to take on Barton's Nordberg in round two. Djonov won in an 8-7 (2) tiebreaker and would face his doubles partner Ferreira in the championship match. Djonov had the better match and defeated his teammate 8-3 to claim the individual title.
Sitkiewiez was the lone Trojan in Flight 2 and faced Yanes from Averett in his opening match. Sitkiewiez won his opening match 8-5 but ended up falling in his second round against Barton's Gaydon 8-4. Sitkiewiez then took on Martheus in the third-place match and won 8-1 finishing third overall in Flight 2.
Middleton and Nunez competed in Flight 3. Middleton won his first and second-round matches, 8-4 and 8-6 respectively, to advance to the championship match. He then fell 8-6 to Barton's Kelly to take second overall.
Nunez won his opening round over Guilford's Horne but fell to Kelly of Barton round two. Nunez then went on to defeat Barton's Savio in the bracket to decide third-place 8-4.
Normand advanced to the championship match of Flight 4 to finish as the runner-up falling to Gerbino from Barton 8-3. In round one Normand won in an 8-7 (5) tiebreaker ver Barton's Huamani and took down Methodist's Blanco 8-3 in round two.
Arbelaez finished in fourth place in Flight 5. After defeating Guilford's Pocrnja 8-4 in the opening round, Arbelaez was knocked out by Barton's Petterson in round two 8-2. In the third-place bracket, Arbelaez lost in an 8-7 (5) tiebreaker to Averett's Bogdasaryan.
Rounding out tournament action for the Trojans was Jimmy Davis. Davis lost his opening match in Flight 6 to Methodist's Ly 8-5. He would finish seventh in his Flight after winning 8-2 in the backdraw over Bitzberger from Methodist.
UP NEXT
The Trojans are back in action this weekend as they travel to Rocky Mount, NC, to compete in the NC Wesleyan Tournament this Friday thru Sunday.