ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Two SCAC men’s tennis athletes were selected to compete for the NCAA Singles Championship last weekend at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in St. Louis, Missouri, highlighted by Trinity University’s Jared Perry advancing to the Round of 16.
Perry, the SCAC Newcomer of the Year, defeated fifth-seeded Ajay Mahenthiran of Case Western Reserve University (OH) in the first round of action, battling out a three-set victory. After dropping the first set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (7-4), he roared back with a 6-2 win in set two, then clinched with a 6-4 win in the third.
In addition to Perry, SCAC Player of the Year, junior Oscar Roy of Southwestern made his debut at the NCAA Singles Championships. Roy squared off against seventh-seeded Matthew Kandel of Williams College, falling in two sets, 6-4, 6-4. Kandel would eventually fall in the NCAA Quarterfinals to Denison’s Kael Shalin Shah, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, who is playing for the individual national title on Tuesday.
The afternoon brought him a familiar opponent to Trinity, as future SCAC member Concordia University’s (TX) Joshua Bode won his opening match to advance and face off with Perry. This time, Perry won the opening set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (7-5), then was edged in a narrow 7-6 (7-5) tiebreaker. In that second set, he had three match points to win it, but ultimately fell short. Perry was then eliminated with a 6-3 loss in the third set. Bode would fall in the NCAA Quarterfinals to Chicago’s Derek Hsieh, 7-6(7), 6-1.
