Men's Tennis Opens Play at Penn Invite
PHILADELPHIA, PA – Play commenced on Friday at the Penn Invitational as the University at Buffalo men's tennis team picked up four doubles wins and a pair of singles triumphs in the 16-team competition. There is no team scoring in the flighted tournaments.
Two of UB's doubles teams moved into Saturday's quarterfinal round with two victories apiece in the A Flight. Damien David and Ivan Vereshchaga defeated Penn's Jeremy Court and Kyle Roth, 8-3, in their opening match and then scored an 8-4 win over Kristian Marquart and Kacper Rams of Temple in the top half of the draw. In the bottom half of the flight, Vusa Hove and Akhil Mehta also defeated a Penn duo, Sylvester Wise and Rob Wong, in their opening match, 8-5. Hove and Mehta then advanced to Saturday's quarterfinal round following a 9-7 victory over Charlie Carrera and Alex Frakes of St. Peter's.
Hove and Vereshchaga also won singles matches on Friday to move into quarterfinal play. In the Penn Flight, Hove outlasted Lehigh's Benjamin Gilman, 6-1, 6-7, 10-2, in a three-set match. Vereshchaga, playing in the Levy Flight, knocked off Jeff Kessler of St. Joseph's, 7-6 (1), 6-4.
David, Mehta, Jason Simon and Yevgeniy Jason Shkodnik dropped their opening matches and will play in consolation round action on Saturday.
Play continues through Sunday.