Three out of the four Valparaiso University men’s tennis players in action at Duke’s James Bonk Invite in Cary, N.C. closed out the weekend with singles victories on Sunday.

How It Happened

• Senior Charlie Emhardt (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) won the third-place match in the Black singles bracket, taking down Sean Burnette of North Carolina State in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.
• Sophomore Chad Kissell (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) claimed fifth place in the White singles bracket with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Auburn’s Conner Huertas del Pino.
• Senior Jeffrey Schorsch (Perrysburg, Ohio/Perrysburg) closed out tournament action with a singles win of his own in the Blue bracket, coming from behind for a 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 win over Philip Moebius of VCU.
• Senior Dave Bacalla (Skokie, Ill./Niles North) was the only Crusaders to suffer a loss on Sunday, dropping a hard-fought 7-5, 6-4 decision to Michael Ogden of N.C. State.

Inside the Matches

• The quartet of Crusaders combined to post a 10-6 record in singles action at Duke, with Kissell and Emhardt leading the way with three wins apiece.
• Schorsch extended his school-record career wins total to 86, while Emhardt moved into solo second place on the same chart with 72 wins. Bacalla now owns 65 career singles wins as well.

Next Up

The Crusaders will step away from competition next weekend before returning to action the following weekend. The ITA All-American Championships begin Saturday, Oct. 1 in Tulsa, Okla., while team members who don’t travel to Tulsa will compete at Toledo’s Rocket Invitational, starting Friday, Sept. 30.