SALINA, Kan. – Over the weekend, the Southwestern College men's and women's tennis squads traveled north to Salina, Kan. for the ITA NAIA Central-West Regional Championships, hosted by Kansas Wesleyan University. The Builder squads posted several Round of 16 finishes, along with three quarterfinalist doubles pairings.

For the women's and men's singles brackets, there were 64 total participants each, with four ladies and five men from SC as part of the field.

On the women's side, Grace Roberts and Mariana Ochoa were able to reach the Round of 32 in the tourney after rather simple victories in the Round of 64. They each ran into more difficult opposition in the second round, though, as they were unable to advance.

Jasmin Hauska and Catherine Coe were the other two Builder women to compete in the singles competition. They both managed to earn a place in a Round of 16 match after cruising to two-set wins in each of their first two tilts. Then, though, the Round of 16 proved difficult, as Hauska was dispatched in her match (6-1, 7-5). Coe had a highly-competitive bout, as she pushed the battle to a tiebreaking stanza with a narrow (7-6 (7-5)) win in the second set. Unfortunately, she would fall by a line of 10-3 in the tiebreak.

The men's team had one competitor reach the Round of 16 in singles as well, as Federico Poi earned wins in his first two matchups ((6-3, 6-4), (6-3, 6-2)). Only a tight defeat (6-4, 4-6, 11-9) in his last match would keep him from moving forward to the Quarterfinals.

Ryan Kitchin and Benjamin Erdmann each fell in the Round of 32 after easy wins in the Round of 64, while the likes of Logan Engela and Santiago Marin dropped their opening tilts in the Round of 64 to round out the men's singles results for the Moundbuilders.

Doubles on the women's side of the tournament went rather well for Southwestern, as both the pairings of Coe/Ochoa and Hauska/Roberts were able to reach the Quarterfinals with wins in the Round of 32 and the Round of 16.

The men had one pairing, Erdmann/Kitchin, reach the Quarterfinals as well. Then, the Engela/Poi pair had a Round of 16 finish, and the Tricio/Marin team dropped a tight 9-7 match in the opening round.

The ITA NAIA Central-West Regional Championships closed out the squads' fall seasons, as they will now look forward to the spring, when the women try to defend their Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) title and then men look to reach that level after a runner-up finish a year ago.

--buildersports.com--