Saari paces Bishop men's tennis at ITA Regional Tournament

Sewanee, TN - With a 4-1 singles record and semifinal appearance, junior Antti Saari paced his North Carolina Wesleyan men's tennis team at this past weekend's ITA Regional Tournament in Sewanee, TN. Saari (pictured), the tourney's #2 seed, defeated three players from Emory University before falling to eventual champion Dillon Pottish. As a team, the Battling Bishops collected 15 singles victories over the course of the three-day tourney.

Sophomore Alexey Rumyantsev went 2-1 in singles play with wins over players from Mississippi and Emory, while teammates Fred Lemongo, Clayton Sonn, and Artsiom Prostak also earned their first singles wins of the season.

Other Bishops competing in "A" flight singles were Marcelo Prata, Anton Filonov, Ramon Pardo Garcia, and Erkut Cakmak.  Unfortunately, all four lost their respective first round matches.

Competing in "B" flight singles were Ilpo Kautonen, Evgeniy Bukatin, Kalpesh Patel, Dominic Forsdike, and Marcus Ribbenstedt.  Kautonen (2-0), Bukatin (2-0), and Ribbenstedt (1-0) were each undefeated before the draw was canceled due to rain.  Forsdike earned the Bishops' final singles win in straights over Rhodes' Kevin Duffy.

Highlighting doubles play, Prostak and Prata teamed to down Oglethorpe's Alex Biffle and Ross Beall by an 8-2 score.

The Battling Bishops return to action next Saturday and Sunday at Methodist's Fall Invitational.