Senior Jeffrey Schorsch (Perrysburg, Ohio / Perrysburg) represented the Valparaiso University men’s tennis team at the Oracle ITA Masters in Malibu, Calif. on Friday, while the remainder of the Crusaders began the Valpo Fall Invite.

How It Happened – Oracle ITA Masters

• Schorsch, competing in an invite-only event that features the top player from each conference, lost his second-round match to Kentucky’s Ryotaro Matsumura.
• Schorsch dropped Set 1 6-4, then lost the second set 6-1 to Matsumura, who was the No. 2 seed in the event.

How it Happened – Crusader Invitational

• In A Singles, Chad Kissell (Latrobe, Pa. / Greater Latrobe) dispatched Northwestern Ohio’s Teo Baudin 6-3, 6-3 in a second-round match. Kissell will collide with Butler’s Aviv Ben Shabat on Saturday at 11:30 a.m.  
• Dave Bacalla (Skokie, Ill. / Niles North) rolled to a 6-0, 6-1 victory on Friday afternoon against Olivet Nazarene’s Srdja Nikolic in B Singles. Bacalla meets Chicago State’s Gonzalo Martinez on Saturday at 11:30 a.m.
• Brandon Ancona (Belvidere, Ill. / Rockford Christian) captured two victories on Friday. He got the better of Green Bay’s Miles McDowell 6-4, 6-2 in opening-round action, then knocked off Iowa’s Tony Leto 6-4, 6-1 in a second-round showdown. Ancona will attempt to continue his winning ways on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. when he faces Butler’s Spencer Lang.
• Lang defeated Valpo’s Kyle Dunn (Fond du Lac, Wis. / Fond du Lac) 7-5, 6-1 on Friday, sending Dunn to a consolation match against Leto, which is slated to get underway at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.
• Daniel Langston (Ponca City, Okla. / Ponca City) beat Butler’s Sam Sullivan 6-4, 6-2 in a C Singles match. Langston will go at it with Chicago State’s Rohan Wattley on Saturday at 1 p.m.
• Kissell and Bacalla teamed up for a 6-3 win over Northwestern Ohio’s Theo Baudin and Gjorgi Popovski in A Doubles.
• Ancona and Langston joined forces in a 6-3 triumph over Northwestern Ohio in B Doubles.
• Brian Pecyna (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) and Franklin Brozovich (Fort Gratiot, Mich. / Port Huron Northern) also earned a doubles win for the Crusaders, topping an Olivet Nazarene duo 6-2.  
• Brozovich split a pair of C Singles matches on Friday. He beat Olivet Nazarene’s Samir Shammas 6-0, 6-1, then came up on the wrong end of a 6-4, 6-3 match against Butler’s Adrian Mag. Brozovich is expected to return to the court on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
• Charlie Emhardt (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel) fell to Green Bay’s Matej Kostadinov 6-1, 6-2 in his lone match of the day and will compete in an A Singles consolation match against Iowa’s Jonas Larsen on Saturday at 11:30 a.m.
• Elsewhere in A Singles, Garrett Gardner (Poland, Ohio / Poland) dropped back-to-back matches. He fell in a three-set affair with Butler’s Mason Gragos 6-0, 3-6, 14-12, then succumbed to Chicago State’s Felix Savard in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4.
• Dunn and Gardner lost their A Doubles match to Butler 6-4 and will return to the court on Saturday at 8 a.m. against Northwestern Ohio.
• Pecyna fell to Northwestern Ohio’s Jean-Marc Krone 6-3, 6-4 in C Singles. He’ll meet Butler’s Sam Sullivan in a consolation match on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Inside the Matches

• Langston, who has won four straight matches, moves into a tie with Gardner for the team lead in wins with seven.
• Ancona has had tremendous success as a double player this season. With Friday’s win, Ancona and Langston are now 3-0 as a pair, while Ancona is 6-0 overall in doubles, with Dunn serving as his doubles partner for his other three victories.  
• The Valpo Tennis Invitational was originally scheduled to be an indoor event, but the majority of the matches are being played outdoors on campus due to favorable weather. The Courts of Northwest Indiana were used for Friday’s indoor portion

Next Up

The Valparaiso Fall Invitational will continue with the final day of play on Saturday.