Men's Western Illinois Invite

The men kicked off the 2012-2013 season with a bang at the Western Illinois Invite. The Western Illinois Invite is a great tournament that features many scholarship schools, and it is a great opportunity for our players to get some great matches against some great players. We have many new faces this year with six incoming freshman and one transfer student from Cleveland State, and it was great to see these players out there representing the Warhawks.

The tournament started on Friday with doubles competition. Byron and Mitch Osborne won the 1 doubles bracket for the 'Hawks. They started off slow, but came through in a tiebreaker in the first round. Much of the dust began to shake off as well in the semifinals, before they returned to the form that made them one of the best doubles teams in the nation in the finals. Andrew Bayliss teamed up with transfer Ben Shyklar in the 2 doubles bracket. Andrew and Ben played well in their first round, but fell in the second round to Division II Truman State. They showed great resiliency however coming back to win in the 3rd place match. Andrew McGlashen and Kevin Friend teamed up to win the 3 doubles bracket for the 'Hawks. Andy and Kevin won their first two rounds with ease, but came up against two tough Division I players from Western Illinois in the final. After being down 6-7 love-40 the 'Hawks realed off three straight games to win the match 9-7. The 4 doubles bracket featured two Warhawk teams, Brian Klein and Cam Laktash and new freshman Ben Klein and Jake Humphreys. Both teams played well in their first two rounds even beating two teams from Division I schools (Brian and Cam defeated Valparaiso 8-0 and Ben and Jake defeated Western Illinois 8-2). That set up a terrific all Warhawk final where Brian and Cam defeated Ben and Jake 9-7 to win the bracket.

The Warhawks carried their great doubles performances into the singles competition. Byron Balkin played in the 1 singles draw for the 'Hawks. He won his first round with ease, but came up against a big serving lefty from Western Illinois in the semifinals. Byron played well, but couldn't come up with the goods to win. In the 3rd place match Byron played against the number one player from Valparaiso and the match was a barn burner. After losing the first set 5-7 Byron came back in the second and won 7-0 in the set tiebreaker and sent the match to a decisive third set breaker. The third set tiebreaker was entertaining with great tennis throughout, but Byron came up short 11-13 to take 4th place in the draw. Ben Shyklar played in the 2 singles draw for the 'Hawks and won his first round, but suffered a knee injury in the process. He played his second round though and won the first set before the injury became too much and lost in a third set breaker. Ben had to pull out of the third place match giving him a 4th place finish. Andrew Bayliss played in the 3 singles draw for the 'Hawks and won his first round against a tough player from Olivet Nazarene. In Bayliss' next round he played against a tough player from Lindenwood. Andrew took the first set, but his opponent found his stride in the second set and the third set tiebreaker to win the match. In the third place match Bayliss played a big serving player from Valparaiso, but his serve was just too tough and Andrew lost 4-6, 6-7. The 4 singles bracket featured two Warhawk players Andrew McGlashen and Ben Klein. Both players played well in their first two matches and found themselves matched up against each other in the second all Warhawk final of the tournament. In a great match Andy won 6-4, 7-6(8). Mitch Osborne played in the 5 singles bracket for the 'Hawks and won his first two round to set up a match against Western Illinois in the final. This match was close from the beginning, but Mitch lost the third set breaker to give him second place in the draw. Jake Humphreys played in the 6 singles draw for the 'Hawks, and after a tight semifinal where Jake lost the first set only to come back and win the match he won the final against Western Illinois to win the bracket. Brian Klein was supposed to play in the 7 singles draw, but after doubles had to pull out with an arm injury. Freshman Matt Bisbee stepped up in his absence and beat two Division I players from Valparaiso and Western Illinois in the semis and finals respectively to win the draw. The 8 singles draw featured two Warhawks, Cam Laktash and Frehsman Nate Campanilie. Cam lost a tough first match and had to pull out after with a back injury. Nate on his first round, and won a great second round against Valparaiso before falling to Lindenwood in the final to take second. Kevin Friend played in the 9 singles draw and took 3rd.

Overall, it was a great tournament for the 'Hawks especially considering that we had two days of practice before the tournament, and many new players on the team. The Warhawks won 6 of the 13 draws in the tournament along with taking 2nd in two others. There were also two brackets that featured all Warhawk finals. These results make me very excited for the coming season, and I know our guys are going to work hard throughout the season. The next tournament for the guys in their non-traditional season is the ITA tournament at the end of September. I will be posting pictures from the invite later so keep an eye out for those.