SAN DIEGO, Cal. – Old Dominion men’s tennis fends off Texas Tech in a thrilling 4-3 win to kick off the Ed Collins Invite on Friday night.
ODU’s No. 2 Cosme Rolland De Ravel and Adam Majchrzak began the tournament with a doubles win over Tyler Stewart and Ludovico Vaccari, 6-4, and No. 1 brother duo Codie and Connor Van Schalkwyk, who are ranked 88 in the ITA, followed with a win over Sebastian Abboud and Piotr Pawlak (6-2), who are ranked 80, giving the Monarchs the first point. No. 3 Jean-Karim Olivier de Sardan’s and Aryan Saleh’s match against Niksa Arsic and Thiago Guglieri was suspended (4-5).
Stewart put Texas Tech on the board by opening the singles matches with a win over No. 3 Codie Van Schalkwyk (6-3, 6-2), though No. 6 Saleh would respond for the Monarchs by besting Abboud (6-3, 6-1). No. 2 Connor Van Schalkwyk, who is ranked 101 in ITA for singles, put ODU at the brink of the win with a victory over Arsic (6-4, 7-6), though Red Raiders Vaccari and Pawlak defeated respective Monarchs No. 4 Majchrzak (7-5, 6-4) and No. 1 Rolland De Ravel (4-6, 6-1, 6-2) to knot the match at three. For the win, No. 5 Olivier de Sardan downed Abboud by a dominant 6-3, 6-1 score, giving ODU its first win of the Invite.
Old Dominion will play once again tomorrow against San Diego at 2 p.m. in the semifinals at the Hogan Tennis Center.