Brendan Baker

Seven Warriors advanced to Monday matches in either singles or doubles.

Men's Tennis 10/1/2023 7:30:00 PM Matthew Jurek, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Men's Tennis Collects Numerous Victories in First Two Days of ITA Midwest Regional

The Warriors won 22 singles and nine doubles matches between Saturday and Sunday.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The Wayne State University men's tennis team completed its first two days at the ITA Midwest Regional in Grand Rapids on Saturday and Sunday with a strong showing. The squad went 22-7 in singles and 9-2 in doubles matches and have several in contention for championships on Monday.

The 2023 edition of the ITA Midwest Regional is being hosted by Grand Valley State University. Matches are primarily being played at the GVSU Tennis Courts. Over the past two days, all Flight B action occurred at Hudsonville High School, with all Flight C competition at Unity Christian High School.

The tournament is one of the ITA's 63 Small College Regional Championships and brings together athletes from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC), Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), and Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC).

Nine WSU student-athletes played in matches across singles and doubles during the first two days. Saturday and Sunday contests began at 8:30 a.m. with singles and play continued through the afternoons and into the evenings with doubles.

On Monday, Benjamin Hill (Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) and two-seed Joe Kelt (Ilkley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom) will duel each other in a singles Flight B semifinals match at 9 a.m., while AJ Duggan (Saginaw, Mich.) will represent WSU in the singles Flight C finals, also at 9 a.m. The graduate newcomer will face Stephen Claassen of Grand Valley State for the championship.

Doubles Flight A will have a Warrior flavor as each semifinal contest will feature a Green and Gold duo. The top-seeded Cedric Drenth (Sulzbach, Germany) and Daniel Grey (Wiesbaden, Germany) will face fourth-seed Benjamin Lortie and Jan Koupil from Ferris State at 1:30 p.m., while Luke Laws (Sunderland, England) and Dom Spicer (London, England), the overall eight-seed in the bracket, are slated to play McKendree's Luka Kalenic and Vishnu Prasad at the same time in the other semifinal.

SINGLES
Wayne State had representatives across all three singles flights. Flight A and B featured the Round of 64 and 32 on Saturday and the Round of 16 and quarterfinals on Sunday. Flight C had the Round of 32 and 16 on Saturday, with the quarterfinals and semifinals on Sunday. Below are the results from the first two days of singles action.

Flight A
R64 – Indrek Soome (Lewis) def. No. 1-Cedric Drenth, 1-6, 7-5, 11-9
R64 – Luke Laws def. Esunge Ndumbe (Ferris State), 6-2, 3-6, 10-7
R64 – No. 10-Dom Spicer def. Nathan Hollis (Cedarville), 6-3, 6-1
R64 – No. 5-Daniel Grey def. Arthur Bord (Findlay), 6-3, 6-1
R32 – No. 6-Leonardo Schmitz Frederico (McKendree) def. Luke Laws, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 10-4
R32 – No. 10-Dom Spicer def. Victor Agustin Cortes Flores (Rockhurst), 7-6 (7-3), 6-4
R32 – No. 5-Daniel Grey def. Alex Van Lumich (Purdue Northwest), 7-5, 6-3
R16 – No. 7-Yaroslav Sharyy (Drury) def. No. 10-Dom Spicer, 5-7, 6-2, 10-8
R16 – Benjamin Lortie (Ferris State) def. No. 5-Daniel Grey, 6-3, 6-4

Flight A Consolation
C-R32 – No. 1-Cedric Drenth def. Pedro Diaz Camacho (Purdue Northwest), 6-2, 7-5
C-R16 – No. 16-Erik Kovacs (Ferris State) def. No. 1-Cedric Drenth, 7-6 (7-3), 6-0

Flight B
R64 – Joe Steele (Beverly Hills, Mich.) def. Lawrence Ivanov (Grand Valley State), 6-2, 6-2
R64 – Benjamin Hill def. Sebastian Trigosso (Maryville), 6-2, 6-2
R64 – No. 2-Joe Kelt def. Vishnu Prasad (McKendree), 6-2, 6-1
R32 – No. 8-Bendix Schroeder (McKendree) def. Joe Steele, 7-5, 6-0
R32 – Benjamin Hill def. Pedro Romano Franca (Indianapolis), 6-3, 6-2
R32 – Joe Kelt def. Stefan Andrei (Lake Superior State), 6-0, 6-3
R16 – Benjamin Hill def. Lukas Rieber (Drury), 2-6, 6-4, 10-7
R16 – Joe Kelt def. Dallas Ramsay (Findlay), 6-3, 7-5
QF – Benjamin Hill def. No. 3-Yannic-Alexander Mader (Ferris State), 6-3, 6-3
QF – Joe Kelt def. Freddy Cossio (Grand Valley State), 6-0, 6-3

Flight C
R32 – AJ Duggan def. Iago Alcover (Rockhurst), 7-5, 6-1
R32 – No. 2-Emil Mikkelsen (Soenderborg, Denmark) def. Cory Conley (William Jewell), 6-2, 6-0
R16 – AJ Duggan def. Daniel Sroka (Purdue Northwest), 6-2, 6-2
R16 – No. 2-Emil Mikkelsen def. Jose Brenes Villarreal (Davenport), 6-1, 6-2
QF – AJ Duggan def. Markos Prentits (Maryville), 6-4, 6-4
QF – Emil Mikkelsen def. Lorenzo Biava (Maryville), 6-2, 6-3
SF – AJ Duggan def. Lorenzo Pierini (Ferris State), 6-3, 6-2
SF – Stephen Claassen (Grand Valley State) def. Emil Mikkelsen, 6-4, 6-3

DOUBLES
Two of Wayne State's four doubles teams advanced to the final day of competition, both from Flight A. The format for doubles was similar to that for singles, with the first round on Saturday and the next two rounds on Sunday.

Flight A
R32 – No. 1-Cedric Drenth/Daniel Grey def. Wilfredo Lara/Arthur Bord (Findlay), 8-3
R32 – No. 8-Luke Laws/Dom Spicer def. Sebastian Jonsson/Pablo Herrera (Illinois-Springfield), 8-2
R16 – No. 1-Cedric Drenth/Daniel Grey def. Jan Stolin/Subash Paramasivam (Davenport), 8-1
R16 – Luke Laws/Dom Spicer def. Philip Peter Carstensen/Niklas Nordahl Jensen (Walsh), 8-5
QF – Cedric Drenth/Daniel Grey def. Indrek Soome/Matias Parzajuk (Lewis), 8-5
QF – Luke Laws/Dom Spicer def. Samuel Dickson/Joao Martins (Purdue Northwest), 8-2

Flight B
R32 – Emil Mikkelsen/Benjamin Hill def. Tom Schmitt/Lorenzo Biava (Maryville), 8-4
R32 – No. 3-Joe Steele/Joe Kelt def. Ethan Milgan/Luis Ceballos (Walsh), 8-1
R16 – No. 1-Yannic-Alexander Mader/Erik Kovacs (Ferris State) def. Emil Mikkelsen/Benjamin Hill, 9-7
R16 – Joe Steele/Joe Kelt def. Lorenzo Del Biondo/Seb Holden (McKendree), 8-4
QF – No. 6-Joaquin Minguez Ribera/Victor Lopes (Grand Valley State) def. Joe Steele/Joe Kelt, 8-2

The ITA Midwest Regional serves as a direct qualifier for the ITA Cup, a national championship held annually for the Division II, Division III, NAIA, and Junior College levels. Winners from the regional tournaments will compete at the Cup in Rome, Ga. from October 12 through 16 at the Rome Tennis Center.

All contests on Monday will be at the GVSU Tennis Courts.

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Players Mentioned

Cedric Drenth: 6' 2"; Junior

AJ Duggan: 5' 9"; Graduate Student

Daniel Grey: 6' 0"; Senior

Benjamin Hill: 6' 0"; Freshman

Joe Kelt: 5' 9"; Sophomore

Luke Laws: 5' 10"; Graduate Student

Emil Mikkelsen: 5' 11"; Senior

Dom Spicer: 5' 11"; Graduate Student

Joe Steele: 6' 0"; Senior

Players Mentioned

Cedric Drenth
: 6' 2"; Junior

AJ Duggan
: 5' 9"; Graduate Student

Daniel Grey
: 6' 0"; Senior

Benjamin Hill
: 6' 0"; Freshman

Joe Kelt
: 5' 9"; Sophomore

Luke Laws
: 5' 10"; Graduate Student

Emil Mikkelsen
: 5' 11"; Senior

Dom Spicer
: 5' 11"; Graduate Student

Joe Steele
: 6' 0"; Senior