ROME, Ga. – The Gustavus men’s tennis doubles team of Chase Johnson (Sr., Golden Valley, Minn.) and Patrick Whaling (Sr., Manikin Sabot, Va.) lost Friday in the semifinals of the ITA Cup to Emory’s Jonathan Jemison and Adrien Bochet 7-5, 6-1. It’s the first loss of the fall season for Johnson and Whaling as they drop to 10-1 overall. The Gusties will now play for third place Saturday against James Wei and Varun Shanker of Caltech.
“The boys had a good look at the first set and were inches from getting over the line there,” Head Coach Tommy Valentini said. “That obviously changes the course of the match. Hats off to Emory. They capitalized early in the second set and came up with some excellent shots at that point. We learned a lot from this one and I was very proud of how well Chase and Patrick continued to compete despite at few tough moments not going their way. The beauty of the ITA Cup is that they have another great opportunity against top caliber national competition tomorrow. We’re looking forward to bouncing back and enjoying tomorrow’s challenges.”