Men's ITA and Midwest Open Tournament

This weekend was a huge one for the Warhawk Men's Tennis team in St. Peter, MN. The Warhawks advanced many players in singles and doubles of both the ITA and Midwest Open draws. The Warhawks also notched victories in both the ITA and Midwest Open doubles draws.

On Friday the Warhawks began both the Midwest Open and ITA singles draws with some impressive play. The Midwest open draw featured 4 Warhawks including 3 of the Freshman 'Hawks Nate Campanile, Michael Schnarr, and Max Hawksford. All 3 Frehsman played very well in their opening matches going 9-0 collectively  advancing to the round of 16. Kevin Friend was the lone 'Hawk not to advance to the round of 16 in the Midwest Singles draw. After winning his first round Friend fell in a third set tiebreaker for the third set. The ITA draw featured 10 Warhawks. The ITA draw this year was extremely deep, and I was happy with how our players competed in every match. Four Warhawks, Ben Shklyar, Andy McGlashen, Jake Humphreys, and Ben Klein all went undefeated on the day and advanced to the Round of 16. Shklyar, the 5 seed, received a bye in first round only to face a strong unseeded player from Coe. Shklyar at one point was an overhead from his opponent away from going down 1-4 before battling back to win the match 6-4, 6-2. McGlashen was also invovled in a tight second round match against a big server from Gustavus. Andy won the first set but lost the second, and he was down 1-5 in the third set tiebreaker before mounting a comeback to win 10-5. Humphreys won his first two matches quickly before coming up against a tough freshman from Coe. His opponent was extremely difficult hitting the corners all day and forcing Jake to work extremely hard just to win one point. The match was full of body blow after body blow. Humphreys lost the first set in a long breaker 8-6, and was at 5-5 30-all in the second set when his opponent began to cramp. After seeing the trainer he resumed play and Humphreys took the set 7-5. This forced the match into a third set tiebreaker. Humphreys opponent found a second wind battling the cramps, but Jake turned out to be a machine and took the breaker 10-7. Ben Klein won all 3 of his first matches in straight sets, but he was tested the whole way. Klein defeated the number 1 for Carleton and 2 for Luther along his way. 7 Warhawks were not as lucky to advance to Saturday in the singles draw. Freshman Matt Bisbee came up against a strong player from Grinnell in the first round. Bisbee won a hard fought first set 7-5 before suffering a back injury in the second set. He fought as hard as he could through the injury, but couldn't pull out the match. Cam Laktash won his first round match against another tough player from Grinnell. After losing his first set 4-6, Cam battled back in the second to win 6-4, and dominated the third set tiebreaker with patient play 10-2. Laktash the fell in the next round to the 9 seed Chu. Brian Klein played a great first round winning in two quick sets, but in his second match he pushed the 4 seed as far as he could before losing 6-2, 7-5. Mitch Osborne won his first two matches in straight sets before falling to the 10 seed from Luther in the third round.  Andrew Bayliss won his first round against a strong unseeded player, but fell in the second round to another unseeded player from Gustavus. Balkin, the 6 seed, received a by in the first round, but found himself up against a strong Division-1 transfer from UW-La Crosse in the second. After falling in a tough first set tiebreaker Byron lost the second 1-6 to end his singles tournament. With the first three rounds of singles completed the Midwest and ITA draws turned to doubles action.

The Midwest Draw featured two Warhawk teams Campanile/Bisbee and Hawksford/Schnarr. Even though he was battling a back injury Campanile/Bisbee won their first two rounds, and Hawksford/Schnarr looking impressive winning their first two rounds as well. The ITA doubles draw carried long into the night, but at the end three Warhawk teams found themselves in the round of 16, Osborne/Balkin, Bayliss/Shklyar, and McGlashen/Ben Klein. McGlashen/Ben Klein had one of the upsets of the day in doubles ousting the number 9 seed from St. Thomas. Friend/Humphreys found themselves up against last year's semifinalists and number 4 seed from Coe. They played well, but just couldn't come up with the shots when they needed them and lost. Brian Klein and Cam Laktash played great in their first round, but just couldn't get past a strong unseeded team from UW-La Crosse. After all the matches were played it was 11:00pm and the Warhawks rushed home to sleep and prepare for the next day.

On Saturday The 3 Warhawks left in the Midwest Open singles and 4 left in the ITA singles draw began their matches at 9am. In the Midwest open draw Schnarr fell to the eventual champion in three sets, and Hawksford advanced to the quarterfinals only to lose the eventual semifinalist. Campanile advanced to play singles on Sunday with 2 strong wins in the round of 16 and quarterfinals. The ITA draw was not so kind to the Warhawks. Ben Shklyar found himself in a tough match-up of seeded players. Towards the end of the first set Shklyar began to feel back spasms and after losing the first set 4-6 was in too much pain to continue.Ben Klein found himself in a tough battle in his match as well. Klein was facing the number 3 seed, and eventual finalist from St. John's. Klein gave him everything he could, but his opponent was just too tough and took the match 6-3, 7-5. McGlashen and Humphreys were involved in tough battles in their round of 16 matches as well. McGlashen took the first set against the number 8 seed from Carthage, but he lost the second set 6-4. In the third McGlashen found himself down 0-3 and his outlook looked bleak before he fought back to force the third set into a tiebreaker. Andy's opponent was too strong and won the tiebreaker 7-4. At this point freshman Jake Humphreys was the only Warhawk left in the ITA singles draw. After being down 1-5 in the first set to the number 1 seed Humphreys came back to force the third set into a tiebreaker. He lost the tiebreaker, but roared out quickly to take the second set 6-1 forcing the match to a decisive third set. After falling down a break early 2-4 Humphreys fought back to even the match at 4-4. Both players traded service holds for the next 4 games and the third set went into a tiebreaker. Towards the end of the second set Humphreys opponent began cramp as he was just wearing him down point after point. It was a long tiebreaker but the 1 seed prevailed 8-6 to win the match in one of the most viewed matches of the tournament. With all of the Warhawks done with singles for the day everyone's attention turned to doubles. Bayliss/Shklyar played well despite Shklyar barely being able to move and advanced to the semifinals to play the number 1 seeds from Gustavus. McGlashen/Ben Klein came up against the 8 seed in the round of 16 and they were just too much. Osborne/Balkin defeated two number 9 seeds to earn a spot in the semifinals against the number 8 seed who ousted McGlashen/Ben Klein from the tournament. On the Midwest open side Hawksford/Schnarr and Camapnile/Bisbee won their first two matches to advance to the semifinals of the doubles draw. The 4 doubles semifinals of the Midwest Open and ITA draws featured a UWW team going up against a Gustavus team, and after all was said and done the 'Hawks came away with a 3-1 record in those semis. Hawksford/Schnarr and Campanile/Bisbee both advanced to take each other on in the finals of the doubles draw on Sunday. Osborne/Balkin also advanced to the finals with a strong 8-6 win in the semifinals. The only Warhawk team to lose in the semifinals of a doubles draw was the tandem of Bayliss/Shklyar. Shklyar's injury was just too much to take out the 1 seeds from Gustavus, and they fell 8-4.

Sunday featured 6 Warhawks still playing in either draw. Campanile fought hard in his singles semifinal, but was unable to come up with the win. In the all Warhawk final of the Midwest Open doubles the duo of Hawksford/Schnarr outlasted Campanile/Bisbee winning 12-10 in the third set tiebreaker.

 

The ITA doubles final didn't disappoint as well. It featured Osborne/Balkin, the two seed, going up against Donkena/Smith-Dennis, the one seed, from Gustavus Adolphus. These teams had two great matches last year with each team winning once. Osborne/Balkin started the match off strong getting a break early in the sixth game of the set, and they didn't lose another game in the set. In the second set, the team from Gustavus found some energy, but fell down an early break in the sixth game as well. This time they wouldn't go away as they broke Osborne's serve the next game before getting broken again to give the 'Hawks the 5-3 lead. It was then up to Byron Balkin to serve out the match. The 'Hawks won the first two points up Gustavus won the next two to bring the score to 30-all. Osborne/Balkin then fought off two well played points from Gustavus to win the match 6-2, 6-3. 

This is the second time in the last three years that a Warhawk team has won the ITA doubles draw. Balkin/Osborne will now head to Mobile, Al. to represent the Midwest in the ITA Small College National Championships. With the win Osborne/Balkin have now recieved the recognition of being All-Americans. They are the 5th and 6th players to become athletic All-Americans for the 'Hawks (Men or Women) in the last 3 years.

Congrats to all the Warhawk players this weekend. This is a physically and mentally draining tournament, and I am proud of how our team played. I would also like to thank all the parents who came out to help support the 'Hawks. Now the men (Except for Osborne/Balkin who play in the ITA Small College National Championships in October) rest up for the spring season which kicks off January 25th against Northern Illinois in Rockford, IL, and I know for me that can't come soon enough.

If you would like to see the full draw from either tournament click here