VESTAL, N.Y. — Wagner men's tennis wrapped up the first day of the NEC Individuals on Friday with multiple wins in the top three flights of singles and doubles competition.
As the top-seeded doubles pairing in Flight A, junior
Eddie Schmidt and sophomore
Nicola Bottelberghs kicked things off with a 7-5 win against Yurii Hoida and Joao Teixeira from Chicago State. They will continue the doubles bracket against LIU's Victor Sjostrom and Jack Brimm in the quarterfinals.
The Seahawks also had the second-seeded doubles pairing in flight A, with senior
Tyler Nguyen joining redshirt sophomore
Lukas Escher to defeat Tauras Mickus and Adavait
Mantri from FDU, 6-4. They'll face off against Stonehill's Guillermo Bennaton and Javier Arreaga in the quarterfinals tomorrow.
In singles competition, three Seahawks each won two matches in Flight A and will all compete in the semifinals. Schmidt started the streak with wins over Le Moyne's Callum Matthew (7-5, 6-0) and FDU's Tauras Mickus (7-6, 6-3) as the top seed. Schmidt will have a chance to play for a championship tomorrow when he takes on Binghamton's Felipe Costa in the semifinals tomorrow.
Escher earned the second seed and defeated LIU's Leo Lazarides (6-0, 6-3) and Binghamton's Zihe Liao (6-2, 6-4) in consecutive rounds, while Bottelberghs pulled off two upsets, defeating Chicago State's No. 3 seed Yurii Hoida, and Le Moyne's No. 5 seed Emmanuel Cottle on his way to the semifinals. The Green & White are guaranteed to have a player in the Flight A finals, since Bottelberghs and Escher will face each other in the semifinal round.
In the Flight B bracket, Nguyen earned the No. 2 seed in the eight-player field, and defeated Binghamton's Milan Icboyun to earn a spot in the semifinals. He'll face off against FDU's Nate Roberman for a spot in the finals.
Junior
Joshua Zhao also won a match in his bracket, upsetting the No. 2 seed in Flight C, Le Moyne's Gabriel Segubiense, after winning a tiebreak game in the second set (6-3, 7-6). He'll face off against Chicago State's Cesar Coloma in the semifinals.
The Seahawks will return to the NEC Individuals tomorrow at the Lane - Starke Tennis Center.
