Conor Kvatek/USTA

Cedric Drenth (above) and Daniel Grey (below) won three doubles matches vs. CWRU at the Everybody vs. Cancer Invitational.

Men's Tennis 9/24/2023 9:00:00 PM Matthew Jurek, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Men's Tennis Concludes Final Two Days at Everybody vs. Cancer Invitational

The three-day invitational saw eight programs play singles and doubles matches.

TOLEDO, Ohio -- The Wayne State University men's tennis team played opponents from four different schools to wrap up its weekend at the three-day Everybody vs. Cancer Invitational, hosted by the University of Toledo.

Eight teams played a series of contest of varying formats. Some consisted of singles only, doubles only, or both, and the number of matches in each category varied based on the competing teams. Wayne State played Tiffin and Holy Cross College (NAIA) on Friday, Case Western Reserve (Division III) and Marquette (Division I) on Saturday, and concluded the event on Sunday with a match against both Toledo (Division I) and University of Northwestern Ohio (NAIA).

The Everybody vs. Cancer Invitational was held at two locations -- the University of Toledo Varsity Tennis Courts and the Shadow Valley Tennis Club. WSU played at both locations over the weekend. The event raised money in benefit of the American Cancer Society.

Saturday Results
Case Western Reserve Matches
The Warriors played the defending Division III champion Spartans at 9 a.m. to open Saturday. Matches were played at Shadow Valley Tennis Club.

A majority of the contests vs. CWRU were in doubles. The Green and Gold went 5-4 in the nine doubles matches.

Cedric Drenth (Sulzbach, Germany) and Daniel Grey (Wiesbaden, Germany) played in and won three contests. The second-ranked doubles duo in the region and country at the end of last season grabbed two victories, 6-1 and 7-5, over Sahil Dayal and Vishwa Aduru. The two Warriors then handled Diego Maza and Michael Sutanto, 6-2 to finish with a perfect 3-0 doubles mark for the invitational.

Also victorious over CWRU were the tandems of Joe Steele (Beverly Hills, Mich.) and Emil Mikkelsen (Soenderborg, Denmark) and Benjamin Hill (Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) and Joe Kelt (Ilkley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom). The Steele/Mikkelsen duo notched a 7-5 win vs. Justin Prochnow and Casey Hishinuma, while the Hill/Kelt team collected a victory against Derek Shiffer and Rohan Bhat, 6-3.

Hill and Kelt played two other matches with each other, dropping a 6-1 decision to Diego Maza and Michael Sutanto and a 6-4 affair to Yuvraj Narang and Daniel French. Also competing in two other contests were Steele and Mikkelsen. They lost 6-4 to Anmay Devaraj and Casey Hishinuma and 6-2 to Jackson Schuetzle and Trey Lambright.

Three singles matches were played against the Spartans. Dom Spicer (London, England) defeated George Kosseifi 6-4, 6-4 for his first singles win this fall after going 0-1 on day one. Luke Laws (Sunderland, England) knocked off Matthew Plunkett in straight sets, although both required tiebreakers. The scores were 7-6 (7-2) and 7-6 (7-1).

AJ Duggan (Saginaw, Mich.) fell to Santiago Salazar Garza by set scores of 6-4, 6-3.

Marquette Matches
WSU went 2-2 in doubles against the Golden Eagles, with the two triumphs both involving Steele. With Duggan, the two collected a 6-2 win over Teddy Wong and Ivan Vazquez. Steele also defeated Wong and Vazquez with Kelt by the same 6-2 score.

Kelt and Mikkelsen lost 6-2 to Jan Jauch and Jasper Schaadt, while the Mikkelsen and Duggan team fell 6-3 to the same Marquette duo.

Hill, the freshman, recorded another singles victory in a 6-4, 6-3 match win vs. Nathan Balthazor.

Sunday Results
Wayne State battled two teams in one match on Sunday, with all matches being played at the tennis courts on the Toledo campus. Action on the final day began at 11 a.m. for the Warriors. The squad dueled with the host Rockets and the Racers from UNOH.

The Green and Gold had a combined doubles mark of 1-3, losing two matches to Toledo and one to Northwestern Ohio. The lone victory in doubles came from Steele and Hill in a 6-3 decision vs. Sergio Conde and Lucas Perez from the Racers.

Spicer and Laws suffered a close 7-6 defeat at the hands of UNOH's Martin Stanchev and Malik Omarkhanov. Toledo's Marko Galic and Poonthong Komolpisut posted a 6-3 defeat of WSU's Drenth and Kelt pairing, with Mikkelsen and Duggan coming up short, 6-2, against another UT combination of Matias Olivero and Charlie Snow.

In seven singles matches on the final day of competition, the Warriors were 3-4. Drenth, along with the two newcomers in Hill and Duggan, collected the wins. Drenth, the 10th-ranked singles player in Division II by the ITA (second regionally), defeated a Division I opponent in Komolpisut. He won 8-2 on Sunday. Hill and Duggan both concluded a strong first weekend as Warriors with singles victories over UNOH rivals. It was an 8-4 triumph for Hill vs. Kwanda Mbalekwa and an 8-5 win for graduate student Duggan against Nils Messin.

Other matches included Spicer losing 8-6 to Stanchev, Kelt falling just short in a 8-7 (7-4) defeat to Galic, Steele dropping an 8-4 affair to the Olivero, and Mikkelsen being handed an 8-4 loss vs. Snow. Laws and Omarkhanov were scheduled to play, but never saw the court in singles.

Final Team Totals
vs. Tiffin University (Friday): 3-5 singles
vs. Holy Cross College (Friday): 2-0 doubles, 5-0 singles
vs. Case Western Reserve University (Saturday): 5-4 doubles, 2-1 singles
vs. Marquette University (Saturday): 2-2 doubles, 1-0 singles
vs. University of Toledo/University of Northwestern Ohio (Sunday): 1-3 doubles, 3-4 singles

In total, Wayne State put together a combined 10-9 record in doubles and 14-10 mark in singles.

UP NEXT
WSU will play its second fall tournament at the annual ITA Midwest Regional Tournament next weekend. This season, the Grand Valley State Lakers are hosting the three-day event, primarily at the GVSU Tennis Courts. The championship tournament runs from Saturday, September 30 through Monday, October 2.

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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