CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Norfolk State men's tennis team competed this weekend at the University of Virginia Fall Classic.
Junior Kent Austin and freshman Sam Lemberger competed in the Red Flight of the doubles bracket where they moved on to the next round after Virginia's Ian Uriguen and Alex Scheinman withdrew because of an illness. They were defeated by Liberty's Siim Tuus and Jorge Azuero, 8-4, and North Carolina Wesleyan's Robert Kjellberg and Artsiom Prostak in the consolation matches.
In the Gold Flight of the doubles matches sophomore Daniel Grauel and freshman Dzmitry Zyhmantovich suffered an 8-1 loss to Bastian Bornkessel and Janik Burri of Binghamton, as well as an 8-1 loss to Yusuke Kusuda and Ted Nilsson of Coastal Carolina. They fell to Richmond's Dylan Trent and Justin Baker in the consolation bracket.
Freshman Peter Rastromer-Pello and sophomore Igor Braga competed in the Orange Flight of the doubles bracket where they loss to Penn State's Chris Young and Guanhua Chen, 9-7, before winning their consolation match against Liberty's Sergio Maurelo and Josia Boda, 8-6.
Austin fell to Penn State's Chen, 6-0, 6-1, and Coastal Carolina's Sam Barr, 6-2, 6-2, in the Blue Flight of the singles bracket. He suffered a 6-3, 6-4 loss to Guilleme Secanel of Liberty in the consolation match.
In the Orange Flight of the singles matches Pello suffered a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Binghamton's Robin Lesage and William & Mary's Ben Hoogland, 6-0, 6-0. He was defeated in the consolation bracket by Liberty's Dillon Segur, 6-2, 6-1.
Lemberger fell to Leo Christofides of Coastal Carolina, 6-2, 6-2 in the White Flight of the singles bracket. In the consolation matches was defeated to North Carolina Wesleyan's Artsiom Prostak, 6-4, 6-2, and Penn State's Ramy Labna, 6-3, 6-2.
Grauel competed in the Black Flight where he fell to Matt Barry of Penn State, 5-7, 6-4, 6-0. He also dropped a decision to Liberty's Egon Samaii, 4-6, 7-5, 11-9, before defeating Virginia's Ian Uriguen, 6-3, 4-1 in the consolation bracket. Grauel also defeated Richmond's Justin Baker, 6-3, 6-3.
In the Red Flight of the singles competition Braga loss to Hugo Ramadier of James Madison, 6-3, 6-2, and William & Mary's Aaron Chaffee, 6-3, 6-4. He beat Kevin Kovacs of George Washington, 6-4, 6-3, in the consolation matches before falling to Josh Record of the College of Charleston, 3-6, 6-0, 10-7.
The Spartans will travel to Winston-Salem, N.C., on Oct. 12-14 for the Wake Forest Invitational.
