ST. PETER, Minn. – The No. 16-ranked Gustavus men’s tennis team defeated No. 10-ranked Carnegie Mellon University 8-1 Saturday night in the consolation semifinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, improving to 5-4 on the season.
“Carnegie is a very talented group, they compete great, and they do a lot of things well. So for us to come out with tonight’s result was wonderful,” Head Coach Tommy Valentini said. “I felt the guys did a great job tonight of recovering from yesterday’s emotions. In singles, we were really in trouble at the top three spots, but they continued to believe and focus on their plans, both tactically and mentally. I’m grateful the results lined up with how well our guys handled the moment.”
The Gusties swept doubles as Mohanad Alhouni (Sr., Tripoli, Libya) and Patrick Whaling (Jr., Manakin Sabot, Va.) won 8-6 at No. 1, Tommy Entwistle (Sr., Sioux Falls, S.D.) and Chase Johnson (Jr., Golden Valley, Minn.) won 8-3 at No. 2, and Zack Ekstein (Sr., Eagan, Minn.) and Yassine Derbani (So., Casablanca, Morocco) won 8-6 at No. 3.
In a rematch of the ITA Oracle Cup national singles championship, Alhouni once again defeated Daniel Levine in a matchup of the top two ranked singles players in Division III. This time Alhouni won 7-6, 6-1. The rest of the singles played out as such:
- #18 Zach Ekstein (GAC) def. Chaz Downing (CMU) 4-6, 6-3, 10-3
- Patrick Whaling (GAC) def. #20 Ray Boppana (CMU) 1-6, 6-1, 6-3
- Chase Johnson (GAC) def. Kailas Shekar (CMU) 6-2, 6-4
- Robert Levin (CMU) def. Yassine Derbani (GAC) 7-6, 7-6
- Tommy Entwistle (GAC) def. Joshua Pinckney (CMU) 6-4, 6-4
Gustavus takes on the University of Redlands tomorrow in the consolation championships. Start time is approximately noon.