Gustavus Adolphus men’s tennis players split a pair of first round matches Thursday at the ITA National Small College Championships being held this weekend at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers.
The Gustavus doubles tandem of Mike Burdakin (So., Bettendorf, Iowa) and Charlie Paukert (So., Grand Forks, N.D.) needed to wait out a 3.5-hour rain delay, but advanced to the semifinal round of the NCAA Division III doubles bracket. Burdakin and Paukert toppled the second-seeded team of Michael Goodwin and Michael Kaufman of Emory 7-6 (5), 4-6, 10-8 in their first round match. The pair will play two matches on Friday, beginning with a semifinal matchup against Eric White and Daniel Quiniones of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas) at approximately 12:30pm EDT, with the winner advancing to the final of NCAA Division III doubles bracket. The loser will participate in the third place match. Both the final and third-place match will take place at approximately 4:30pm EDT Friday.
Gustavus senior Jesse Brauer (Mankato, Minn.), seeded second in the NCAA Division III singles draw, saw his run at a national championship come to an end Thursday with a 6-4, 6-2 loss to Alex Scott of Middlebury. Brauer’s tournament is not over, though. Brauer will face John James of the University of Mary Washington (Va.) at 8am EDT Friday in a consolation semifinal.