Mya Smith-Dennis
St. Peter, Minn. – Following two days of competition at the 2012 USTA/ITA Midwest Regional Championships, the Gustavus men’s tennis team is poised for a sweep of both the singles and doubles tournaments after a solid day two showing.
In the singles tournament, the first semifinal match will feature Amrik Donkena taking on Saint John’s Fabricio Moncada in what is a repeat of last year’s championship match. Donkena defeated Jake Humphreys of UW-Whitewater in the fourth round and Nick Garcia of the University of Dubuque in the quarterfinals to earn a berth into Sunday’s semis.
Teammates Juan Luis Chu and Mya Smith-Dennis will face each other in the other semifinal match. Chu topped Ben Shklyar of UW-Whitewater and Noah Sprinkel of Coe on Saturday to advance, while Smith-Dennis defeated Ramesh Karki of Luther and Jeff Lotz of Carthage to earn a trip to Sunday’s finals.
Semifinal matches will begin at 9:00 a.m. with the championship to follow directly after.
In the doubles tournament, the Gustavus pair of Donkena and Smith-Dennis will face UW-Whitewater’s Byron Balkin and Mitch Osbourne in the championship match set to begin at 2:00 p.m. Donkena and Smith-Dennis defeated Moncada and Jack Hanson of Saint John’s 8-0 in the quarterfinals before taking down Andrew Bayliss and Shklyar of UW-Whitewater 8-4 in the semifinals.