United Athletic Conference

Grand Canyon's singles player Julian Mueller and Seattle U doubles team Adrian Alvarez-Sanabria and Lars Schmassmann have been named the Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Month for November.

 

Mueller, a freshman from Bensheim, Germany, competed at the GCU Invitational where he went undefeated, earning three wins. On day one, he collected a win over Azusa Pacific's Leyton Bohren (5-7, 6-3, 1-0(7)). Mueller also picked up wins over a pair of Abilene Christian participants on days two and three. He defeated the Wildcats' Riley Tran 7-6, 7-5, and Michael Benavides 6-3, 6-3.

 

Alvarez-Sanabria, a senior from Ojai, Calif., and teammate Schmassmann, a freshman from Basel, Switzerland, impressed in November as they advanced to the Round of 16 in the Gonzaga Invitational. The duo earned a win over Montana State's Manuel Monteiro and Grant Wood, defeating them 8-5. In the semifinals, the Redhawk pair fell to Northern Colorado's Adolfo Arroyo and Nick Wade by a score of 7-8(0-7), in a tightly contested match.

 

Other male singles nominee: Chicago State's Jakov Suler went 3-0 during the month of November, competing in the Illinois State Invitational where he picked up wins over Marquette, Butler and Illinois State... Seattle U's Adrian Alvarez-Sanabria went 1-1 in November as he advanced to the Round of 16 in the White Singles draw at the Gonzaga Invitational.

 

Other male doubles nominees: Grand Canyon's Valentin Lang and Lorenzo Fucile finished November with a 2-1 record, including a victory over Azusa Pacific's team of Jesse Haas and Jacob Schnaitter as the Lopes hosted the GCU Invitational.

 

The 2019 WAC Men's and Women's Tennis Tournaments will be hosted by Kansas City on April 24-26 in Kansas City, Mo. All six teams will compete in the Tournament as the first round will be No. 4 seed against No. 5 seed while the No. 3 seed takes on the No. 6 seed. No. 1 and No. 2 seeds earn a bye and a ticket straight to the semifinals. The winner of the tournament will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as the WAC representative. The reigning tournament champion is Grand Canyon as they defeated NM State 4-3 in the Championship match last year.

 

In October, the Chicago State men traveled to Louisville, Ky., to compete in the Louisville Invitational. The duo of Jesus Perez Plaza and Jakov Suler impressed as they earned wins over Butler and Toledo. Javier Sanchez Pradillo added a singles victory as he defeated Wright State's Leighton Brandon 8-6.   

 

In November, the Cougars competed at the Redbird Invitational on the campus of Illinois State in Normal, Ill. The doubles teams of Perez Plaza and Suler led the way as they picked up wins over Marquette's Julian Robinson and Shaddy Khalafalah and Illinois State's Aleksa Lazarevic and Diego Herrera in the Red Flight. Sanchez Pradillo and Cody Wurzelbacher added a third doubles victory as they defeated Eastern Illinois' Gage Kingsmith and Pau Riera in the White Flight.

 

In October, the Grand Canyon men competed in the Aztec Fall Invitational and ITA Southwest Regional.

 

In the Aztec Fall Invitational, Laurent Magne earned a victory over Alex Rushin of Loyola Marymount 6-3,6-4 in the State Flight. Valentin Lang added two wins as he defeated Loyola Marymount's Austin Di Giulio and Ethan Prost to advance to the Aztec Flight consolations final. On the doubles side, David Weber and Magne won the consolation bracket in the second doubles flight as they took down Cody Duong and Fraser Leslie of UC San Diego 7-6.

 

At the ITA Southwest Regional, Lang and Lorenzo Fucile both had strong showings. Both men reached the round of 32 as Lang defeated UC Irvine's Aaron Bailey and Fucile defeated UC Irvine's Mike Mkrchian after receiving a pair of first-round byes. Lang and Jakub Novak played alongside each other in the doubles draw where they reached the round of 16. The duo defeated Arizona's Alejandro Reguan and Carlos Hassey 8-4 in the round of 32.

 

In November, the Lopes hosted and competed in the GCU Invitational where they met up with Azusa Pacific and Abilene Christian. As a team, Grand Canyon earned at least four singles wins each day of the invite. Freshman Julian Mueller led the way as he went 3-0 on the weekend, including defeating Leyton Bohren of Azusa Pacific 5-7, 6-3, 1-0 (9-7) on day one of competition. On the doubles side, seniors Fucile and Lang earned two wins, including a victory over Jesse Haas and Jacov Schnaitter of Azusa Pacific.

 

The Kansas City men competed at the All-America Championships and the ITA Central Regional in October. Following a first-round bye, Diego Giraldo advanced to the round of 16 at the ITA Regional as he defeated Omaha's Alvaro Qunitana and Iowa's Nikita Snezhko. Tom Kruse also earned a victory as he won his match against Drake's Freddie Powell in the round of 128.

 

The Aggies competed in the ITA Mountain Regional in Denver during the month of October. The duo of Jordy Visser and Louis Menard led the way as they advanced to the quarterfinals of the doubles bracket behind wins over Paul Ohde and Arthur Serafim of Weber State and Utah's Mathias Gavelin and Azat Hankuliyev. Menard also had a strong showing in the singles draw as he advanced to the round of 16. He defeated Boise State's Simon Arca Costas 7-6, 6-4 and North Dakota's Jake Kuhlman 2-6, 6-

 

Seattle U competed in the Gonzaga Invite this month where they saw competition from the likes of Gonzaga, Montana, Montana State and Northern Colorado. Adrian Alvarez-Sanabria picked up the only singles win for the Redhawks as he defeated Grant Wood of Montana State 6-4, 6-4 in the White Singles draw. SU earned a doubles victory as the duo of Alvarez-Sanabria and Lars Schmassman defeated Montana State's Manuel Monteiro and Grant Wood 8-5.

 

The Vaquero men competed at the ITA Texas Regional in October where they received strong performances from George Hutchings and Alberto Mello. Both Hutchings and Mello were able to earn a round one victory in the singles main draw. Hutchings defeated Jackson Fine of Abilene Christian while Mello took down Blessing Benibo of Lamar.

 

The 2020 Tennis National Championships will take place in Stillwater, Okla. at the Michael & Anne Greenwood Tennis Center on the Oklahoma State campus.

 

May 14-23 

Location: Winston Salem, N.C

Host: Wake Forest