ELON, N.C. -- Longwood University men's tennis competed at the Elon Fall Invitational hosted by Elon University of the Southern Conference on September 21-23 in Elon, North Carolina. The Lancers were led by sophomores
Daniel Elston|St. Austell, Cornwall, England (Ralph Allen School) (3-1),
Harry Kelleher|Sydney, Australia (St. Aloysius College) (2-1) and
Steed Johnson|Ahoskie, N.C. (Needham B. Broughton) (2-2) in singles competition. Johnson and freshman
James Fudge|Kaarst, Germany (Millfield School, England) (2-1) teamed for a successful doubles competition, as well. Longwood will compete again October 12-14 at the WFU Fall Invite hosted by Atlantic Coast Conference member Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
“This tournament was a very good test for us to see where we are at and where we need to go,” said second-year head coach
Jakob Gustafsson. “Several top Big South schools competed here and it was nice to see the competition for the spring. We showed a lot of fight and quality in our singles matches with Dan and Steed both competing on the last day of the tournament. We lost some close ones, though, and need to get better at finishing off our opponents. In doubles, we are only scratching the surface of our potential and it will be our main focus this next week to improve at it for next time. I'm looking forward to having two weeks off from matches to see us get stronger in all aspects of the game before we head down to Wake Forest to compete again. All in all, I was happy with how we represented the Lancers this weekend.”
Elston dropped his B1 singles round one match to Garik Yedigarian of Coastal Carolina University (2-6, 6-7 [4]) before winning a consolation quarterfinal against Daniel Kripak of UNC Asheville (2-6, 6-4, 10-5) and semifinal against Sebastian Fauchet of the University of Richmond (7-6 [3], 6-2) en route to the final win against Collin Roller of East Carolina University (6-1, 6-4). Kelleher had a B2 singles round one win against Chase Altieri of Winthrop University (6-0, 6-2) and a quarterfinal win against Juan Madrid of Elon (7-5, 7-5) before a semifinal loss to Matias Di Pasquale of CCU (2-6, 3-6). Johnson had a C1 singles round one loss to Will Albright of UNC Greensboro (6-3, 2-6, 1-6) before a consolation quarterfinal win against Chris Gleason (6-2, 6-2) and a semifinal win against Clayton Sonn of North Carolina Wesleyan (6-2, 6-0) ahead of a final loss to Will Welte of UR (4-6, 4-6). Johnson and Fudge had a C2 doubles round one win against NCW (9-7) and a semifinal win against Campbell University (8-6) before a final loss to CCU (2-8).
Fudge (1-1) had a C2 singles round one win against Irakliy Marutian of NCW (6-2, 2-6, 7-6 [2]) and a quarterfinal loss to Brett Landau of UNCA (6-2, 1-6, 4-6). Freshman
Bharani Sankar|Glen Allen (Deep Run) (1-2) had a C2 singles round one loss to Dan Sablik of Elon (6-2, 3-6, 6-7 [9]) and a consolation quarterfinal win against Pete Conaty of UNCA (7-6 [5], 7-6 [2]) before a semifinal loss to Bastien Russo of James Madison University (6-2, 6-7 [5], 10-6). Junior
Edward Becker|Sydney, Australia (Manly Selective Campus) (0-2) had a B2 singles round one loss to Rik Van Guerin of CU (0-6, 1-6) and a consolation quarterfinal loss to Ryan Matthews of UNCA (3-6, 0-6).
Elston and Sankar (0-2) had a B1 doubles round one loss to CU (1-8) and a consolation semifinal loss to JMU (5-8). Kelleher and Becker (0-2) had a B2 doubles round one loss to CCU (5-8) and a consolation semifinal loss to ECU (5-8).
