By Cameron Mitchell / The Jambar
The Youngstown State University men’s tennis team opened its fall season by securing a first-place doubles medal and two singles draws at the YSU Invitational on Sept. 13-14 at the YSU Indoor Tennis Center.
The duo of freshman Rafael Le Fur and senior Alexis Maulouet kept the medals in Youngstown after a performance that led them to win the doubles point.
The duo was 4-0 through both days of the tournament. Le Fur and Maulouet won two matches Saturday and two more Sunday, and went 2-0 to secure the doubles crown for Youngstown State.
In the early stages of the doubles rounds, Le Fur and Maulouet defeated Duquesne University sophomore Tancredi Alfano and senior Chris Cianciotti in a close match with a final score of 8-4.
Later in the second round of the doubles bracket, Le Fur and Maulouet faced the Dukes once again and beat sophomore Uvan Patel and junior Yu-Shun Lai in the matchup 8-2.
To wrap up, Le Fur and Maulouet faced off against sophomore Alex Kotarski and junior Nick Herdoiza of Xavier University. The match went into a tiebreaker.
The Musketeers fought off a match point and forced Youngstown State to regroup in the tiebreaker. The ’Guins scored four straight after the set was tied 1-1. The Penguins won the last two points to claim the win at 7-2.
Maulouet and sophomore Alex Woiten added to Youngstown State’s success with two separate match wins.
Maulouet went 3-0 in singles matches. He claimed the title with a 6-2, 6-3 and 10-5 win over Kotarski on Sunday afternoon.
Woiten won a pair of matches on Sunday to take home the title against Case Western Reserve University. In the finals, he beat freshman Shay Gupta by a 7-6, 6-4 score.
The Penguins had a lot of success in their debut, including sophomore Dominik Vonbank’s win over Yu-Shun Lai.
To add to the weekend’s win streak, sophomore Mihai Haita defeated Alfano, while freshman Oscar Gippet defeated Case Western sophomore Luke Saylor in matches of 6-4 and 6-2.
Woiten ended the invitational with three singles wins and a win by draw for Youngstown State.
The ’Guins rounded out the invitational 1-0 in tournament play.
YSU will return to the courts Sept. 19-21 for the Toledo Invitational at the UT Varsity Tennis Courts.
