TYLER, Tex. - All Men's Tennis Players for the Austin College Kangaroos earned wins on the singles courts today in the ITA Southwest Regional Tennis Championships, with two of the five doubles tandems netting victories on the doubles courts.
The biggest victory of the day came from freshman Pieter Jon Cabato, dropping one of the 9th-seeded players in the first round for the first win in the A-Draw Championship bracket since at least 2009 in Austin College Division III History.
Cabato defeated Pablo Gomez of UT-Tyler 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8). Unfortunately he would be outplayed by a veteran athlete from Trinity University in the next round, but the monumental accomplishment would be enough to excite AC Kangaroo Tennis Players and Fans about the future.
Freshman Siddharth Kortikere would not let the momentum die with Cabato, as he would fall 6-1 in the first set to another UT-Tyler Patriot, but would battle for his own 6-4 victory in set #2.
Although he would be outplayed 10-3 in the super tiebreaker for the third set, Kortikere would learn a lot from his debut in Division III ITA competition, and would roll into the next day of the competition with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Schmitt of UTT.
The match of the day went "hands-down" to Sophomore Josh Granberry. In a rematch of last year's showdown that ended 15-17 in a third-set tiebreaker between Granberry and UT-Dallas, version 2.0 would not disappoint.
The two would best their own marathon mark from last year, and extend the tiebreaker to 19-17. UT-Dallas would claim the victory, but Granberry still has three years of eligibility left, and will only continue to improve with experience from matches like this one.
Granberry would do just that, shaking off the tough defeat to compete well against a Conference Opponent from Southwestern, earning a 6-3, 6-2 victory and a spot in the second day; a far cry from his 'demotion' to Qualifying Singles from last year's automatic bid into A-Draw Singles.
Kenneth Hardy came out determined in A-Draw Singles to win his first round match with hard-hit winners from behind the baseline. But his opponent in the Round of 64 would use his pace against him, keeping the ball deep and waiting for him to make mistakes 10+ shots into the rally.
Hardy would fall 6-3, 6-2, but would bounce back in Consolation Singles to win 6-1, 6-4 against a starter from Schreiner's 2015-16 lineup and secure more tennis on Sunday.
Hardy and Kortikere would team up to face the 4th-seeded Chas Mayer & Clayton Niess from Trinity University. After getting down a break of serve early in the match, the young Kangaroo duo would find themselves down 7-4, serving. But a quick hold of serve and a huge break into the changeover would change the complexion of the match entirely.
The comeback would stop there, as Kortikere and Hardy would fall 8-6, but not before some newfound respect would be found for a team with only 1/2 collective years of experience between the two of them.
The two-time A-Draw outcast, Preston Glasscock, having finally made it through his qualifying round into the Championship Event, would not fare well against a freshman from Southwestern, but mirrored his teammates effort in consolation and defeated Texas Lutheran's #1 Singles Player from 2015-16, 6-4, 6-1 to join his teammates in tomorrow's play.
Glasscock and Granberry, having played their way into the A-Draw, started down 0-4 in their Championship Draw doubles match. But in capitalizing on second-serve opportunities and increasing their first-serve percentage, the two fought their Hardin-Simmons opponents to a 7-7 stalemate.
The Cowboys would take the match 9-7 from there, but another competitive early-exit for the 'Roos would be encouraging with the entire spring season left to play.
With so many matches to be played at so few sites, Safe Rahman and Travis Fortune would have to make the most of 1 match on their first day of competition.
The two Freshman 'Roos would compete valiantly in both of their matches, but Rahman would fall to Ozark's #2 player from '15-'16 in straight sets, and Fortune would suffer defeat after winning the first set confidently against a big ball-striker from UMHB.
This year's event saw a record number of entries with the Southwest Region growing with so much quality talent in Men's Tennis. With more entries comes more draws, where Kubena, Oxenreiter, and Morgan would all win both of their Round of 16 and Quarterfinal matches on the first day of competition.
They will all compete in the semi-finals of the Orange, Blue, and White Singles Draws having gone undefeated in their first 6 matches.
Kubena teamed with Cabato in B-Doubles, and in a dead-heat match that went all the way down to the wire, the two would fall in the first-round to a UT-Tyler team 9-7.
Oxenreiter teamed with Fortune and received a bye to the second round. After a slow start, the Kangaroos secured a spot in Day 2 Doubles Competition in the C-Draw with an 8-6 win over Sul Ross State University.
Finally Morgan and Rahman looked to continue their successful partnership from the UT-Dallas Invitational, and made it 2 victories in a row with a win in C-Doubles over Schreiner in the Round of 16. The undefeated streak would stop there as they would suffer defeat in a 9-8 (7-5) tiebreaker to East Texas Baptist University.
Austin College will begin tomorrow with Rahman's B-Consolation Doubles Match at 8am, follow by 4 Kangaroos competing in the Round of 16 in A-Consolation at 9:30.
A Singles
R64 - Liam Crawley (TU) def. Kenneth Hardy: 6-3, 6-2
R64 - Pieter Jon Cabato def. (9) Pablo Gomez (UTT): 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8)
R64 - Gabriel Hidalgo (UTT) def. Siddharth Kortikere: 6-1, 4-6, 1-0 (10-3)
R64 - (9) Hruday Ravula (UTD) def. Josh Granberry: 2-6, 6-3, 1-0 (19-17)
R64 - Austin Moninger (SW) def. Preston Glasscock: 6-3, 6-2
R32 - Kevin Lee (TU) def. Cabato: 6-0, 6-2
C32 - Hardy def. Hoanh Le (SCH): 6-1, 6-4
C32 - Kortikere def. Taylor Schmitt (CTX): 6-0, 6-2
C32 - Granberry def. Alonso Fernandez (SW): 6-3, 6-2
C32 - Glasscock def. Ryan Beene (TLU): 6-4, 6-1
A Doubles
R32 - (4) Chas Mayer/Clayton Niess (TU) def. Kortikere/Hardy: 8-6
R32 - B.J. Farmakis/Micheal Boyd (HSU) def. Glasscock/Granberry: 9-7
B Singles
R32 - Dylar Murray (OZ) def. Safe Rahman 6-4, 7-5
B Doubles
R32 - Marco Miranda/Andres Perez (UTT) def. Kubena/Cabato: 9-7
C Singles
R32 - Brian Martin (UMHB) def. Travis Fortune: 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8)
C Doubles
R16 - Morgan/Rahman def. Jacob Harris/Chris Corbett (SCH): 8-3
R16 - Oxenreiter/Fortune: BYE
QF - Ty Tarver/Joseph Salinas (ETBU) def. Morgan/Rahman: 9-8 (5)
QF - Oxenreiter/Fortune def. Caleb Diller/Juan Samaguey (SRSU): 8-6
Orange Singles
R16 - Jeff Kubena def. Nathan Talburt (HSU): 6-2, 6-0
QF - Kubena def. Jared Sanchez (SCH) 6-4, 6-0
Blue Singles
R16 - Daniel Oxenreiter def. Dexter Palmer (ETBU): 6-4, 6-3
QF - Oxenreiter def. Zac Crowley-Kurth (LeT): 6-4, 6-0
White Singles
R16 - Jacob Morgan def. Clarence Larkins (OZ) 6-1, 6-0
QF - Morgan def. Josh Mueller (LeT) 6-1, 6-1