MERION STATION, Pa. – Four members of the Saint Joseph's men's tennis team reached the semifinals of their respective singles flights at the 11th annual SJU Invitational on Saturday. Hawks earned three of the four semifinal slots in the top flight.
HOW IT HAPPENED
• In the first singles flight, Nickolas Frisk, Francesco Mowrey, and Nathan Perrone all reached the semifinals. Perrone had a bye into the quarterfinals, where he rolled past Villanova's Stefan Suarez, 6-2, 6-2. Frisk defeated Mary Washington's Moses Hutchison, 6-4, 7-6 (4) in his first match before outlasting Harry Wang of Lehigh, 6-1, 3-6, 10-6 in the quarters. Mowrey breezed past Delaware's Curran Verma, 6-0, 6-3, and then topped Tyler Roth of Villanova, 6-3, 6-2, to set up a match with Frisk tomorrow.
• Sam Sauter won a pair of matches to reach the semifinals of the fourth flight. He held off Adria Aguilar of Harford in a supertiebreaker, 6-7 (7), 7-5, 10-8, before punching his ticket to the semis with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Lehigh's Andrew Nakhjavan.
• Eshan Kanetkar and Beekman Schaeffer earned opening round wins in the second flight before falling in the quarterfinals. Kanetkar defeated UD's Milo Nagle, 6-4, 7-5, while Schaeffer cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win over UMW's Mike Fleming.
HAWK TALK
"Another great day for us on Hawk Hill; three of the four semifinalists of Flight 1 are our players," assistant coach Marc Pibernat said. "It's unfortunate that Nicko and Francesco have to play each other in one semifinal but at least that puts one Hawk in the final, while Nate Perrone will be playing the other semifinal.
"Sam Sauter played at a very high level today and he will be playing the semifinals of Flight 4. A special mention to Alex MacNeil, who had a tough loss in the quarterfinals of Flight 3. He is the perfect example of what I want this team to be."
UP NEXT
The SJU Invitational concludes on Sunday; play begins with singles flight semifinals at 9:00 a.m. Visit Tournament Central for updated results and spectator information.
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