Full Tournament Results

MACON, Ga. – The duo of sophomore Fatehdeep Singh and freshman Benedikt Henning of the Norfolk State men's tennis team won a total of five singles matches during the three-day Mercer Gridiron Classic from Friday through Sunday.
 
Henning won once in the men's A singles bracket and then twice more in the back draw at the end of the tournament. Singh competed in the D bracket, where he earned a pair of victories and like Henning, fell in three sets against his next opponent. All matches were played at either the LeRoy Peddy Tennis Center on the campus of Mercer or the Tattnall Square Tennis Center located in the city of Macon.
 
"The men were able to gain some valuable match play experience this weekend and pick up wins over starters from nationally ranked teams," said head coach Worth Richardson. "It was exciting to see how much our doubles play has improved over the last few weeks."
 
Things began on Friday with a 6-4, 6-3 win for Henning over Ben Dolan of Coastal Georgia. The NSU rookie came back on Saturday to win the first set over Arnav Mohanty of Mercer, 6-4, before Mohanty won by scores of 6-4 and 6-2 in the next two sets.
 
Henning knocked off Mercer's Nicolas Guillon by a 6-2, 6-3 score and then Troy's Vaclav Slezak, 6-3 and 7-5, on Sunday in the back draw of the tournament.
 
Singh, meanwhile, won 6-0 and 6-2 over Dylan Jones of Middle Georgia State on Friday and defeated Brad Dunn of Coastal Georgia, 6-1 and 6-3, on Saturday. Like Henning, Singh also won the first set of his next match, a 6-4 victory against Joseph Bishop of Georgia State on Sunday in the bracket semifinals. Bishop stormed back to win 6-4 and 6-0 in the next two sets to advance to the final.
 
In other action, sophomore Antonio Pejic fell to Georgia Southern's Christian Kerrigan in the single's B bracket, 6-4 and 6-4, while freshman Nico Lluch dropped a 6-4, 6-1 contest to Xander Veys of UNC Wilmington in the C bracket. Both matches took place on Friday. Then on Saturday, Pejic dropped a 6-4, 6-3 matchup against Troy's Daniel Bustamante, and Lluch suffered a 6-2, 6-3 loss to UNC Wilmington's Josh Hublitz.
 
Both NSU tandems also won in doubles on Friday. Henning and Pejic downed Quentin Staley and Sean Hajdu of Savannah College of Art and Design by a 6-3 margin in the doubles A bracket. Lluch and Singh took out Oscar Soderlund and Brian Slivonik of Florida Southern, 6-4, in the B bracket.
 
Later in the day, the UNC Wilmington duo of Hublitz and Andres Torres swept Lluch and Singh by a 6-0 score, while Mercer's Arnav and Arsav Mohanty downed Henning and Pejic in a 6-3 win.
 
"The most exciting part about this weekend is seeing our players even hungrier after their experience at Mercer," stated Richardson. "This should serve them well heading into Regionals next weekend and the remainder of our fall season."
 
NSU will compete at the ITA Regional beginning on Thursday at Virginia Tech.