The Bulldogs men’s tennis traveled to Grand Rapids on Friday, Sept. 20 for the Davenport Invitational where student-athletes from Ferris, Davenport, Grand Valley and Northwood University competed.
Ferris reached the finals in five of the eight singles flights as well as three of the four doubles flights during the invitational.
Senior Alessandro Santangelo praised the team’s performance during the invitational.
“I feel quite positive and proud of the way we performed as a team on Friday, I think all of the guys represented Ferris State proudly in every moment,” Santangelo said. “And I’m especially proud of the younger guys who were able to quickly adapt to a new environment.”
The Bulldogs’ first two flights saw their players make it to the finals with sophomore Kevin Kovacs winning his first match against Grand Valley’s Denys Zamaraiev before winning his next match in a third-set tiebreaker against Northwood Alessandro Parigi. Santangelo won both of his matches against Northwood’s Sergio Lopez and Davenport’s Dan Calver.
Freshman Jose Perez and senior Felipe Iser lost both their matches in their Ferris debut.
Senior Kacper Pasielak fell to Davenport’s Jaden Bender in the finals of his flight to a third-set tiebreaker 12-10. Freshman Adrian Catahan lost his first match but beat Chimo Minguez from Grand Valley in straight sets.
Freshman Milo Leuenberger won both of his matches, the first being against Grand Valley’s Lawrence Ivanov then winning his second match against Northwood’s Thomas Ladwein.
Despite the flight victory, Leuenberger wasn’t a fan of his performance during the invitational.
“I was not that happy with my level of performance on Friday, I did not feel the ball at all during both of my matches and didn’t move very well,” Leuenberger said. “I could not get into the first match at all, the second match was significantly better and definitely a good win to boost my confidence, I can certainly build on that.”
Freshman Pi Wellington lost both of his matches and freshman Isaac Stahly fell in the flight finals against Stephen Claassen from Grand Valley.
After the singles matches finished, next up came doubles matches where in the first match saw Santangelo and Pasielak lose but won their second match against Calver and Jan Stolin from Davenport. In the second doubles flight, Kovacs and Iser fell in the finals to Simone Pacciolla and Bender from Davenport.
The third flight saw Perez and Catahan lose both of their matches. In the final doubles matches Wellington and Stahly won the first match before winning their flight due to a walkover.
The Bulldogs will be traveling back to Davenport for the ITA Regional Small College Championship, which runs from Saturday, Sept. 28 to Monday, Sept. 30.