CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Members of the Saint Joseph's men's tennis team were in action as the 2019 ITA Atlantic Regional Championships got underway with singles play on Thursday at the University of Virginia.  Nickolas Frisk earned a pair of wins to book his place in the Third Round.

In the top half of the draw, Frisk outlasted Conners O'Brien of Navy, battling back from a set down to earn a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 win before dispatching Faisal Alrebdi of George Mason in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.  Frisk is set to face off with 23rd-seeded Brandon Perez of Virginia Tech in the Third Round on Friday.

In the bottom half, Beekman Schaeffer notched a win, topping Navy's Christian Pumpelly, 6-3, 6-4, before falling to Oren Vasser of William and Mary, 6-2, 6-2, in the Second Round.  Francesco Mowrey advanced to the Second Round as well with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-0 win over Rohan Kamder of Georgetown before falling to Virginia's Christian Alshon, 6-3, 6-4.

Elsewhere, Luis Janko fell in his opening match, 6-1, 6-1, to James Madison's Will Karpinski, while Sam Sauter went down, 6-3, 6-2, to Rosen Naydenov of Longwood, and Johnnie Massart fell to Delaware's Luis Molina, 6-0, 6-2.  Eshan Kanetkar received a bye into the Second Round, but ultimately fell to Ryan Navarro of George Washington, 6-2, 6-2.

Nathan Perrone, seeded 20th in the tournament, will play his first match of the event on Friday; he will face Nihit Rawal of Morgan State.

“This is my third ITAs with the team and this year we took a different approach in terms of preparation that we did not do the past two years and I can say that it definitely paid off,” assistant coach Marc Pibernat said.  “By far our best performance at ITAs so far and we are not done yet with Nickolas and Nathan into the third round. I am very proud how everyone competed today and they gave everything they had on the court, which led to some good wins.”

Play continues in the singles draw on Friday, with doubles action kicking off as well.