ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy men's tennis team saw two of its doubles teams reach the Sweet 16 and three of its singles players win first-round matches at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Atlantic Regional Championship held this weekend at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center in Norfolk, Va.  The doubles team of Luke Garner and Herrick Legaspi along with the tandem of Aniketh Ayinala and Jason Kim won two matches apiece, while Garner, J.J. Etterbeek and Jake Young each won main draw singles matches.

ITA Atlantic Region Championship
Navy had five players entered into the qualifying tournament for singles, with two victories needed to reach the main draw.  Four Mids advanced to the second match and three successfully qualified for the field of 64.

Etterbeek earned wins over Hampton's Yanozie Amadike, 6-1, 6-3, and Harrison Lee of James Madison, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.  Young won his first match against Nikita Bortnichek of William & Mary, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 7-5, then posted a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Dieho Cueto de Romana of Virginia Tech.  Ayinala advanced out of his first round match due to his opponent, Howard's Hassimiyou Dieng, having to withdraw due to an injury.  He then won a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 decision over Georgetown's James O'Sullivan to reach the main draw.

The three Navy qualifiers joined teammates Legaspi, Nathan Nguyen and Garner in the main draw.

Legaspi lost in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2, to top-seeded and 20th-ranked Dylan Dietrich from Virginia, third-seeded Jake Fellows from Georgetown defeated Nguyen in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1, and Ayinala lost a 6-2, 6-4 match to Liberty's Ernst Gouws.

Winning first round matches were Young, Garner and Etterbeek.  Young posted a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win over Jakub Solarski from Norfolk State, Garner defeated Monil Lotlikar from George Mason, 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (7-5), and Etterbeek won a 6-2, 6-4 match over Raz Katz from William & Mary who received a 9-16 seed.  

Each of the three Mids would fall in the round of 32.

Navy had good success in doubles as three teams won first-round matches and two posted second-round wins.

Etterbeek and Nguyen posted an 8-7 (7-1) win over the George Mason team of Lotlikar and Niza Simunyola in the first round.  The Mids would fall in the round of 32 to Virginia Tech's Ilyas Milad Fahim and Julian Lozano, who comprised the fifth-seeded team in the tournament, by the score of 8-4.

Ayinala and Kim combined for an 8-3 win over Morgan State's Makkijha Brown and Bertin Karenzi in the first round, then defeated the William & Mary tandem of Sean Joseph and Katz, 8-5, in the second round. That sent the Navy duo into a Sweet 16 match against Virginia Tech's Maxime St-Hilaire and Frank Thompson.  The Hokies, who were seeded eighth in the field and ranked 63rd nationally, posted an 8-3 win over the Mids.

The Navy team of Garner and Legaspi received a 9-16 ranking at the start of the event.  The pair made their seed hold up as they first topped the Old Dominion team of Jean-Karim Olivier de Sardan and Aryan Saleh, 8-4, then won an 8-3 match against Georgetown's Arthur O'Sullivan and James O'Sullivan.  That placed the Mids in the Sweet 16 against Virginia's Mans Dahlberg and Dietrich.  The second-seeded Cavaliers defeated the Navy team by the score of 8-3.

Navy Gold Invite
Annapolis was the site of the Navy Gold Invite this weekend as the Mids welcomed players from Binghamton, Georgetown, Harford CC, Loyola, Milligan, Morgan State, NJIT, Penn State and Princeton.

Leading Navy's efforts on the weekend was George Cutone, who posted a 3-1 record in doubles and a 2-1 mark in singles.  He teamed with Graydon Buckingham in doubles for wins over Binghamton's Andrew Ajed and Andrew Fang, 6-1, Penn State's Shrikeshav Murugesan and Nolan Ranger, 6-4, and the Milligan team of Brayden Kennedy and Gonzaga Lafarga, 6-4.

Cutone also registered singles wins over Alexander Sterin from Penn State, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), and Tom Sorin from NJIT, 6-2, 6-3.

Zach Quattro won all three of his singles matches this weekend.   He won a three-set match over Morgan State's Anthony Parris, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, and straight-set matches against Georgetown's Henry Williams, 6-2, 6-4, and Milligan's Ryan Thomas, 6-0, 6-1.

Additionally, Charlie Spencer and Steve Nguyen each won a pair of straight-set singles matches. 

Up Next
Navy will next be in competition in two weeks when the Mids take part in the Patriot League ITA Qualifier at Army and the UNCW Team Invite Oct. 25-27.