BUCKHANNON, W.Va. - Following an undefeated start as a team, the Millersville men's tennis program took its skill to the ITA Atlantic Regional Tournament hosted by West Virginia Wesleyan College.
Millersville continued to perform well, impressing in both singles and doubles action.
The tournament was highlighted by a B Draw victory in the consolation finals for junior
Santiago Ramos and senior
Jose Alcazar. Several Marauders came close to finishing the tournament with a medal.
The ITA Atlantic Regional Tournament is one of the largest tournaments of the season. It consists of the best singles and doubles players across 12 different programs broken down into A Draw and B Draw.
TOURNAMENT HIGHLIGHTS
• The Ramos-Alcazar combination took the long road to the B Draw consolation doubles title. They dropped their first match of the tournament, 8-1. From there, the junior-senior duo rattled off three consecutive Sunday victories to win the bracket. They took their final match against the University of Charleston (W.Va.) duo of Tristan Shaw and Alex Martinez, 6-3.
• Also winning a match in B Draw doubles was the duo of
Frank Yanni and
Rodrigo Lorencin. They went on to lose their next match.
•
Carlos Martinez-Lucas made a solid run through the A Draw singles bracket. Competing as a No. 5 seed, the junior received a bye in the round of 64 and won in straight sets in the round of 32 and round of 16. Martinez-Lucas dropped his quarterfinals match to Bluefield State's Tom Schmeita, the eventual champion, 3-6, 4-6.
• Also competing in A Draw singles was
Frank Yanni. The junior lost his round of 64 matchup but bounced back in the consolation bracket with consecutive victories to advance to the consolation semifinals.
•
Ben Fellman, Lorencin, Ramos and Alcazar all competed in singles B Draw. All four Marauders won matches.
• Of all the Marauders in singles B Draw, it was Lorencin, a sophomore, who made the deepest run. He won his first three matches in smooth fashion, grabbing them all in straight sets to advance to the semifinals before losing in Sunday's semifinals.
• Ramos also made a considerable run in B Draw singles. He advanced to the quarterfinals with a marathon victory against Fairmont State's Drew Hawthorne, 3-6, 6-2, 10-6.
QUOTABLE
"A really impressive performance from the guys this weekend," head coach
Matt Helsel said. "This was our first time participating in this event in who knows how long. We simply haven't been ready as a program until recently. Heading into a tournament against the best players in the region, I really didn't know what to expect and I was just hoping we'd play well and come home a better team for the experience. But we got a lot more than we anticipated.
"All six of our guys won multiple matches, which is just incredible. It was a really great experience and gives us a good amount of confidence as we wind down this semester and look ahead to the spring season."
FAMILY REUNION
Junior
Carlos Martinez-Lucas was reunited with his brother, Alex Martinez, a freshman at the University of Charleston. The younger Martinez squared off against
Santiago Ramos and
Jose Alcazar in the doubles B Draw consolation finals, but that was the closest the two ever got to competition.
UP NEXT
The Marauders will compete in their final tournament of 2019 at Bloomsburg University in the PSAC Individual Championships.
