Saturday, September 08, 2012

Six of eight Valparaiso men's tennis players won multiple singles matches on Saturday, highlighted by freshman Michael Savaglio (Kenosha, Wis./Mary D. Bradford) winning the second singles bracket, as the Crusaders closed play at the Art Peterson Invitational in Macomb, Ill.

Savaglio dropped just eight games over his three matches in winning the second singles bracket. The rookie opened play Saturday with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Trenton Jones [Roosevelt] and followed with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Diego Gonsalves [Olivet Nazarene]. Savaglio then concluded with another 6-0, 6-1 victory, this time over Tim McLarty [Missouri-St. Louis].

Four other Crusaders took third place in their respective brackets by winning their first and last matches of the day. Junior Eric Honert (Arvada, Colo./Ralston Valley) won a pair of hard-fought matches to take third place at first singles, downing Nils Mueggenburg [Missouri-St. Louis] in the opener, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 14-12 and defeating Byron Balkin [UW-Whitewater] in the finale, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (0), 11-9. Freshman Michael Baiocchi (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) took third at third singles with an opening win of 6-3, 6-2 over Adam King [Truman State] and a 6-4, 7-6 win over Andrew Bayliss [UW-Whitewater] to close the day.

Freshman Lucas Waak (Manitowoc, Wis./Roncalli) downed Mike Merchant [Truman State] in his opener at fourth singles, 6-3, 6-2 before defeating Tim Gorter [Missouri-St. Louis], 8-6, to take third place in that bracket. At seventh singles, freshman Daniel Oakes (Elburn, Ill./Saint Charles North) opened with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Andrew Yopp [Western Illinois] and beat Jose Salas [Lindenwood] 6-1, 6-3 to earn third place.

Elsewhere, freshman Brian Hickey (Western Springs, Ill./Fenwick) bounced back from an opening loss to defeat Addison Newell [Olivet Nazarene] 6-0, 6-4 and Nils Corrales [Missouri-St. Louis] 8-3 at fifth singles. Freshman Daniel Etman (Highland Park, Ill./K12 International Academy) picked up a win in his opener at eighth singles, besting Chris Bunch [Western Illinois] by a 6-4, 3-6, 11-9 score.

Valparaiso returns to action in two weekends at the Purdue Invitational. Action at the three-day event in West Lafayette starts on Friday, Sept. 21.