Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
ITA All American
Salukis miss qualifying for ITA-All American Championship
09/30/2014 | 12:00:00 | Men's Tennis
By Katja Sonkeng
SIUSalukis.com
TULSA, Okla. - SIU junior Jonny Rigby fulfilled his expectations, won his opening round pre-qualifying matches and advanced to round three on Day Two of the 2014 Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships held at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla.
Starting off the tournament right, Rigby decisively beat his first round competitor Todd Volmari from Loyola Marymount in two sets 7-6, 6-0 after initially going head-to-head. In his second-round match, he faced 10th seeded Austin Peay State's Aleksas Tverijonas and routed him quickly 6-4, 6-2. His win streak was only stopped by UMBC Retriever's junior Jaan Kononov who topped Rigby in two sets 6-1, 6-4.
Saluki freshman Ransom Braaten followed Rigby's strong example, knocking out his first round opponent, but struggled in his second round match and lost in two straight sets (6-2, 6-0) to David Fox of University of Denver.
Fellow freshmen Daniel Martinez, Alex Pozo, Max Phipps, Peter Molloy, sophomore Michal Kianicka and senior Szymon Opieczonek, however, were unlucky with their draws and lost all of their opening round matches in their first appearance at the tournament.
"Jonny Rigby achieved his goal of winning at least two singles matches at this year's tournament", said SIU head coach Dann Nelson. "For our other players, we used this tournament to open their eyes and to experience good competition. We had some good performances but we are not yet on the level that we need to be. We have a young team and we are a work in progress."
For the 10th consecutive year, the University of Tulsa hosted the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships at the state-of-the-art Michael D. Case Tennis Center. Having produced professional tennis players in the past, the all-singles tournament is widely known as one of the largest, most challenging collegiate tournaments of the year.
The Saluki men's tennis team will return to action on Oct. 9 when they compete at the four-day ITA Central Regional tournament in Norman, Okla.
Results
Pre-Qualifying Singles - Third Round
Jaan Kononov (UMBC) def. Johnny Ligby (SIU-Carbondale) 6-1, 6-4
Pre-Qualifying Singles -Second Round
David Fox (Denver) def. Ransom Braaten (SIU-Carbondale) 6-2, 6-0
Jonny Rigby (SIU-Carbondale) def. [10] Aleksas Tverijonas (Austin Peay) 6-4, 6-2
Pre-Qualifying Singles - First Round
Julio Alaya (SMU) def. Daniel Martinez (SIU-Carbondale) 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4
Nils Schuhmann (Hawaii) def. Szymon Opieczonek (SIU-Carbondale) 6-3, 6-2
Simon Norenius (NC State) def. Alex Pozo (SIU-Carbondale) 6-2, 6-0
Parker McGuiness (Utah) def. Max Phipps (SIU-Carbondale) 6-1, Ret.
Alberto Esteban (Tennessee Tech) def. Peter Molloy (SIU-Carbondale) 6-3, 6-2
Jonny Rigby (SIU-Carbondale) def. Todd Volmari (Loyola Marymount) 7-6(1), 6-0
Ransom Braaten (SIU-Carbondale) def. Evan Ward (Morgan State) Def.
Brendan McClain (Boise State) def. Michal Kianicka (SIU-Carbondale) 6-3, 6-2
Players Mentioned
