Arizona Christian wrapped up four days of hosting the ITA NAIA West Regional at the Paseo Racquet Center on Saturday with the duo of
Hugo Abril and
Jonas Wand playing in the men's doubles final.
After a bye in the first round, Abril and Wand, the men's doubles two seed in the tournament, cruised through their first three matches played (8-0, 8-4, and 6-3/6-3) to advance to the finals. In the championship match, the Firestorm tandem dropped the first set 7-6 in tie break fashion (7-4). But they responded with a 7-5 win in the second set to force a third set super tie break. Unfortunately, their Westcliff opponents won 11-9 in the final set.
The Firestorm will wait for the draw to see if they continue to the NAIA National ITA tournament.
Individually, Abril, the top seed in singles, advanced to the semifinals before being upset 6-3 and 6-1. After a first-round bye, he needed just one extra game to advance to the semifinals.
Also in men's singles, Wand and newcomer Lennert Lemahieu played their way to the quarterfinals.
On the women's side,
Karla Grobbelaar and newcomer Madeline Monroy gave the top doubles seed and eventual champion a tough match coming up just short 9-7 in the quarterfinals. Also in the quarters,
Deondra Bacchus and
Vittoria Quadri dropped a tough 9-8 decision.
Bacchus, the singles three seed in the tournament, advanced to the quarters but saw her effort come to an end there.
Head Coach Phil Carlisle commented, "Overall this was a good tournament for us, but there were also a lot of tough moments and missed opportunities that I am sure will stick with us for a while. I am really proud of the way our teams competed throughout the week, although I think we need to be better about handling adversity and pressure situations. The regional tournament is probably the most grueling event of the entire year, so for Jonas and Hugo to make the doubles final is a fantastic achievement and they should get the opportunity to go to the ITA Cup in Georgia in a couple weeks which will be really exciting. I think we will take a lot of good from this week, things we can build on for the spring, and we also saw some areas where we need to grow and be better moving forward, and I know our players will rise to that challenge."
