Bearcats Compete in Qualifying Matches at ITA Northwest Regional

By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

NEWBERG, Ore. -- Several Willamette University men's tennis players competed in qualifying matches in singles and doubles on Friday, Sept. 17 to determine the final entries into the championship brackets at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northwest Regional Championships, hosted by George Fox University. In addition, the first round of championship doubles was played on Friday.

Four Willamette players were automatically selected for the championship singles bracket, which will begin on Saturday. The automatic entries in singles were Andrew Kabacy (Sr., Vancouver, WA/Skyview HS), Andrew Kropp (Jr., Bend, OR/Summit HS), Jordan Megiveron (Jr., Edmonds, WA/Edmonds-Woodway HS), and Kai Kumra (Jr., Santa Rosa, CA/Cardinal Newman HS). Kropp and Megiveron were automatically selected for the championship doubles bracket before the tournament started.

In Friday's first round of the championship bracket in doubles, Kropp and Megiveron were defeated by Mike Smolskis and Rene Del Barco from the University of Puget Sound in a tie-breaker, 8-7 (7-3). Kropp and Megiveron will take on Jackson Wurzer and Luca Viarengo of Whitman College in the first round of the consolation doubles bracket on Saturday, Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m. (PDT).

The singles qualifying matches required four wins in each set, with a super tie-breaker played if competitors split the first two sets. Del Barco from Puget Sound outlasted Andre Lief (Fy., Anchorage, AK/West Anchorage HS) of WU in a very close match in the first round, 4-3 (11-9) 2-4, 10-8. Cooper Rich from Pacific University moved past Doug Li (Fy., Kealakekua, HI), 4-0, 4-0.

Competing in the qualifying doubles matches for Willamette were Lief and Trey Allen (Fy., Tucson, AZ/BASIS Tucson North HS) as well as Kumra and Li. In the first round of qualifying, Lowel Hutton and Carson Ward of Puget Sound downed Lief and Allen, 8-1, while Will Church and Braeden Sawyer from Puget Sound defeated Kumra and Li, 8-1.

The championship singles bracket will get underway on Saturday, Sept. 18. Kabacy, who is one of eight players tied for the ninth through 16th seeds in the 64-player bracket, will play against Osman Chan from Pacific in the first round at 8 a.m. (PDT). Kropp will compete against Joshua Matabuena of Pacific at 10:15 a.m. Megiervon will meet Nick Gabelman from Linfield University at 11:15 a.m., while Kumra will take on Camden Camacho of George Fox at 11:30 a.m. Camacho is one of four players tied for the fifth through eighth seeds in the bracket. The Round of 32 in singles will also be played on Saturday.

Action in the ITA Northwest Regional will continue throughout the weekend. The event is scheduled to conclude on Monday, Sept. 20.