ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (October 16, 2022) - The Men's Tennis team found success at the ITA Mountain Regional tournament this past weekend in New Mexico with multiple round wins in both singles and doubles play as the team finds rhythm through the fall slate.
One of the highlights of the weekend being Alex Groves and Dominik Buzonics win to the No. 23 ITA ranked doubles pairing in Montana State's Matej Panik and Jamieson Nathan. Panik and Nathan were the No. 2 seed in the tournament. Groves and Buzonics earned the 8-7 (7-5) win to the pair in the round of sixteen to advance to the quarterfinal matchup.
Buzonics and Groves won their first doubles matchup to New Mexico's Daniil Kakhniuk and Adam Noroozian in a 8-6 victory. NAU's duo fell in the quarterfinals to Utah State's David Cierny and Bodin Zarkovic.
Facundo Tumosa and Maikel De Boes also found themselves in the quarterfinals of the ITA doubles draw, bringing in wins to Weber State's Sebastian Busman and William Zulch in 8-5 fashion. Tumosa and De Boes brought in another 8-5 win in the round of sixteen to Boise State's Ryo Minakata and Simon Arca Costas. The pairing dropped their quarterfinal matchup 6-8 to New Mexico's Jan Pucalka and Alexander Maggs.
Maciej Ziomber and pairing Daniel Torres along with duo Piotr Galus and Morgan Donovan competed in the Lobos draw for doubles play. Ziomber and Torres played in the quarterfinal match after their first round bye, falling to Idaho's duo of Francisco Gay and Taiyo Kurata 6-8.
Galus and Donavan also had a first round bye, making their doubles start in the quarterfinals. The pair secured a 8-5 match win to BYU's Dominik Jakovljevic and Alex Lin. The two moved on to the final after their opponent withdrew in the semifinal matchup, facing off with Idaho's duo of Gay and Kurata, falling 6-8 to the Big Sky opponents.
The Lumberjacks were split between draws for singles play as Tumosa, De Boes, Buzonics, and Torres played in the ITA draw and Groves, Donovan, Galus, and Ziomber played in the Lobos draw.
Tumosa fell in his first singles matchup to Montana freshman Tom Bittner. Bittner earned the come from behind win as he went 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. De Boes fell in a 2-6, 7-6 (8-6), 4-6 match to Utah State's Cierny.
Buzonics picked up a singles win to Montana State's Bradley Buckland in quick 6-2, 6-2 fashion before falling in the second round to Air Force's Nick Roman in a 6-7 (3-7), 3-6 match. Following Buzonics, Torres won his first singles matchup to New Mexico State's Corey Clarke, 6-3, 6-4. Torres fell to the tournament's No. 2 seed in Utah's Geronimo Busleiman, 2-6, 5-7.
Groves came out of the first round bye in singles play to earn a 6-1, 6-2 victory against New Mexico State's Luca Fe D'ostiani with a 6-1, 6-2 match. Advancing to the semifinals, Groves picked up another win to Denver's Raffaello Papajcik with a comeback after dropping the first set 1-6. Groves went on to win the second and third sets 6-4, 6-2.
Galus also made a run in singles play for the Lumberjacks, picking up impressive wins to BYU players Redd Owen and Jakovljevic to advance to the finals matchup of the Lobos draw. As Groves and Galus both made the finals, the match was not played.
Donovan dropped his first singles matchup in a 2-6, 3-6 match to Kyle Garner of Ari Force. Ziomber received a first round bye and brought in one win in the second round to BYU's Alex Lin in a 6-3, 6-2 victory.
Each singles draw saw extra matches in consolation, where the 'Jacks were able to bounce back and pick up momentum with a few wins. Notably, De Boes brought in the overall win in the consolation draw, winning five straight.
The Lumberjacks will now take the next couple of weeks to prepare for the GCU tournament and the Easley Memorial Classic, both taking place the first week of November.
