Tennis Team Enjoying the Fall

Adam Hunt
Sports Reporter

The Mercer tennis teams have been enjoying a successful fall semester in preparation for Conference play early next year.

On the men’s side, the team has competed in a trio of prestigious invitational tournaments.

Beginning at the Southern Intercollegiates, hosted by the University of Georgia, freshmen Peter Tauchner made his mark.

The Bad Voslau, Austria native posted three wins to reach the semifinals before the event was cancelled due to rain.

Sophomore David Barton was also in good form, taking out Richard Cowden from Middle Tennessee State and College of Charleston’s John Harden before falling to Vanderbilt’s Alex Zotov in the round of 32.

Both the men’s and the women’s team then took part in the Sam Baras Fall Classic at the University of Tennessee – Chattanooga.

Junior Mark Worsham led the way by winning the Men’s D1 Singles flight. Worsham won the final in straight sets.

Junior Amalia Bugge and sophomore Jennifer Lada brought home the title in the Women’s A Doubles flight. The Bears duo bounced the first-seeded Kennesaw State team in the semifinals and captured the championship against UTC’s Bossy and Van der Veek, 8-4.

Mercer had finalists in the Men’s B1 Doubles (Fernando Armendaris and Matthew Poleon) and Men’s C3 Singles (Victor Dias) divisions.

The final tournament of the semester for the men’s team was the University of North Florida’s Fall Invitational.

Sophomore Dias rampaged to the semifinals of the Men’s B Singles division. The San Paulo, Brazil product defeated ETSU’s Jason Ramski, GSU’s Thomas Bekkers, and Mercer teammate, Matt Poleon. His run ended as he fell to FAMU’s Takura Happy in three sets, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Before succumbing to Dias, Poleon had beated FGCU’s Gonzalo DeVilla and Jacksonville University’s Aaron Khatter.

The Bears’ Armendaris and Evandro Rosindo each won their first round matches in the Men’s A Singles division. Armendaris took a tough three setter over Jacksonville’s Victor Vaz. Rosindo took the first set off GSU’s Matthijs Verdarn 7-5 and was up 3-0 in the second frame when Verdarn retired due to an illness.

After losing his first round match in the Men’s A Singles division, Mercer’s Tauchner made some noise in the consolation bracket. He easily won his first round match, 6-2, 6-1, and earned a bye in the second round. Facing FGCU’s Thibaud Aime in his final match, Tauchner lost a 26 point marathon in the third set tie-break, 14-12.