ELON, N.C. – The Elon men’s tennis team was represented by players in both the UNC Wilmington Invitational in Wilmington, N.C., and the Virginia Invitational in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend. Coach Michael Leonard’s players returned to the campus after turning in several stellar performances.
Phoenix freshman Carlin Murray captured the A flight singles tournament title at UNCW, defeating East Carolina’s Aleksey Kochetov 7-6 (1), 7-5 in the first round, North Carolina State’s Eric Turner 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals, UNCW’s Michael Pereira 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals and UNCW’s Ryan Ybarra 6-3, 6-4 in the final.
Murray and sophomore teammate Cody Stauffer-MacDowell advanced to UNCW’s A flight doubles final, overcoming Pereira and Illia Ziamtsou 9-7 in the quarterfinals and East Carolina’s David Masciorini and N.C. State’s Akash Gujarati 8-6 in the semifinals before falling to UNCW’s Ryan Ybarra and Kinshuk Sharma 8-6 in the final.
Elon sophomore Chris Spalding advanced to UNCW’s C flight singles final, defeating UNCW’s Michael Zurawel 6-3, 6-3 and Masciorini 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) before losing to UNCW’s Anton Nikolov 6-3, 6-4.
Meanwhile, Phoenix sophomore Oscar Podlewski knocked off No. 124 Keziel Juneau of William and Mary – the tournament’s fourth-seeded player – 6-3, 6-3 in the A-2 flight singles opening round of the Virginia Invitational before falling to Virginia Commonwealth’s Thibaut Charron 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) in a second-round meeting.
Elon sophomore Philip Nemec beat William and Mary’s William Lang 6-1, 6-3 in Virginia's C flight singles first round before suffering an injury in his second-round match against Virginia Tech’s Zachary Pine, exiting the tournament.
