Dukes Wrap Up Weekend at Elon Fall Invitational

Friday, September 23

Elon, N.C.

James Madison University

Elon Fall Invitational

9/25/2022 8:44:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

ELON, N.C.- Two men's tennis student-athletes advanced to flight semifinals, as James Madison completed play at the Elon Fall Invitational (Sept. 23-25) at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center.

The Dukes captured 10 total wins during the three-day event, with six singles and four doubles victories. Edson Sanchez and Mario Pena each went 2-1 to move to their respective flight semifinals, while both doubles tandems won two matches apiece.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Single Play
In the Gold flight, Sanchez picked up wins against Furman's Thomas Kennedy (7-5, 6-3) and UNC Asheville's Chester Wickwire (7-5, 7-5) before falling short to Liberty's Thandon Longwe-Smith (6-4, 6-1) in the semis.

Mario Pena cruised through the Powell bracket, defeating UNCG's Christopher Johns (6-3, 6-3) in the round of 16 and Radford's Menfredi Vergine (6-2, 6-0) in the quarterfinals. He fell in the semifinal round to Hampton's Daniel Flynn (6-3, 6-2).

Other Dukes picking up a singles win included Aathreya Mahesh against UNCG's Tymofiy Khrystyuk (6-4, 2-6, 7-5) in the Phoenix flight and Canon Secord over N.C. Central's Liam Murtaugh (6-0, 6-2) in the Powell.

Doubles Play
Both JMU doubles teams dropped opening matches before turning around with consecutive consolation victories to cap off the weekend.

Sanchez and Secord won by default against Longwood's Gary Huang and Ernest Rocabert and later earned a 6-1 victory versus Charlotte's Lance Cochran and Aditya Narayanan in the Phoenix flight.

Switching over to the Powell flight, Mahesh and Pena collected a 6-4 triumph against Queens' Quinton McNamara and Win Steveker and a 6-3 win versus Radford's Vergine and Filippo Marangoni.

UP NEXT
The duo of Holden Koons and Youssef Sadek return to action in Tulsa, Okla., at the ITA All-American Championships, which takes place Oct. 1-9 at the University of Tulsa. The rest of the team is back on the courts on Oct. 7-9 at the River City Tennis Open in Richmond.