Sept. 21, 2012

MERION STATION, Pa. - The Saint Joseph's men's tennis team kicked off its 2012-13 campaign on Friday, hosting the fourth annual SJU Invitational at the SJU Tennis Complex and Finnesey Courts. A number of Hawks were in action in both singles and doubles play.

In the first singles flight, graduate student Jeff Kessler, senior Alex Veronis, and junior Jose Sierra fell in their preliminary round matchups. Kessler was topped by Brandon Goldstein of Lafayette, 3-6, 6-1, 11-9 (supertiebreaker), while Veronis went down to Henry Hang-Milsten of Army, 2-6, 6-0, 10-8 (STB). In his Hawk debut, Sierra fell to Evan Zimmer of Bucknell, 6-4, 6-4.

Saturday, senior Tommy Gates will play in the round of 16 against Alex Holland of Army.

In singles flight number two, SJU went three-for-three in the preliminary round. Senior Erik Thunberg was a 2-6, 7-5, 10-7 (STB) winner over Antonio Pena of Hofstra, and will face Alex Fioravante of Drexel in the next round. Junior Dan Barrus will meet up with Villanova's Ryan Peyton after dispatching Will Mercorella of Lafayette in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0, and sophomore Max Montague was a 6-3, 6-0 winner over Irving Stone of Swarthmore. Montague will meet up with Octavio Canibe of Bucknell.

Sophomore Pierre Brondeau will meet up with Trevor Donovan of La Salle in another round of 16 match on Saturday.

Sophomore Sean Rojo won his third-flight match against Jason Prezant of Monmouth, 6-4, 7-5, and will take on Ryan Kent of Delaware on Saturday. Also in the round of 16 in flight number three are junior Paranjay Malhotra, who will meet Adrien Bailly of Hofstra, and sophomore Devin Bostick, who is matched up against Hofstra's Matt Gemmell.

Senior Kristian Broaddus fell in straight sets to Josh Katten of Bucknell, 6-3, 6-0, in a preliminary match.

In the fourth flight, newcomers Sam Cadwell, Kevin Gates, Clark Ruiz, and Andres Urrea will open play in the round of 16 on Saturday. Cadwell will face Matt Colonnese of Villanova, Gates takes on Kyle Rosen of Bucknell, Ruiz will meet Pedro Gimenez of Hofstra, and Urrea is matched up with Drexel's Dan Koehler.

In doubles action, Veronis and Sierra paired up for an 8-1 win over a duo from Lafayette, while the pairings of Broaddus and Tommy Gates, Brondeau and Kessler, and Montague and Urrea all fell in their opening matches in the top flight.

In the second doubles flight, Bostick and graduate student Axel Rebstein moved into the quarterfinals with a pair of wins, topping a pair from Bucknell by an 8-4 score before defeating a Villanova twosome, 8-6. Rojo and Ruiz, Barrus and Kevin Gates, and Thunberg and Malhotra were all defeated in their round of 16 matches.

Main draw and consolation play continues on Saturday morning. Complete results and updated draws are available at the Tournament Central page.