MERION STATION, Pa. – Five members of the Saint Joseph's men's tennis team reached the semifinals of their singles flights on the second day of the seventh annual Saint Joseph's Invitational at the SJU Tennis Complex on Saturday afternoon.
Senior Andres Urrea and junior Kyle Chalmers reached the semis on opposite sides of the first-flight bracket. Urrea cruised past Jose Nunez Navarro of Old Dominion, 6-2, 6-1, before outlasting Villanova's Chris Seitz, 4-6, 7-5, 10-7, in the quarterfinals. Chalmers was a 7-5, 6-1 winner over Delaware's Mike Furr before stopping John Karlawish of Penn, 7-6 (4), 6-1.
Sophomore Peter Dewitt won both of his matches in the second flight, taking out Sam Perelman of Old Dominion, 7-6 (2), 6-1, and Lehigh's Bryant Born, 4-6, 7-5, 11-9. In the third flight, freshman Andre Fick posted a pair of dominant wins, easing past Drexel's Kashyap Ashok, 6-1, 6-1, before routing Ricardo Prince of Lehigh, 6-0, 6-1. Sophomore Grant Boyle reached the semifinals of the fourth flight as well, taking a pair of straight-sets results over Sam Bencheghib of Lehigh (6-2, 6-0) and Karim Halaba of Villanova (6-2, 6-2).
Senior Renier Moolman won his opening round match in the first flight, 5-7, 6-3, 10-6, over Luis Miranda of Villanova, but fell to Lehigh's Jack Petersen, 6-3, 6-3, in the quarters. Senior Kevin Gates won his first match in flight number two, 7-6 (3), 6-1, over Blaise Casselbury of Delaware, before going down to Lehigh's George Cooper in a supertiebreaker, 6-4, 1-6, 10-6.
Freshman Dan Tan was a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Gray Aloian of Villanova in the opening round of the third flight before suffering a 6-4, 7-6 (5) quarterfinal defeat to Villanova's William Elmore.
Junior Tristan Boustany fell in the opening round of the second flight to Villanova's Jimmy Purdy, 7-6 (3), 6-2, before suffering a 6-4, 6-1 defeat at the hands of Drexel's Xabier Saavedra in the consolation draw. Senior Sam Cadwell went down to Alastair Hurry of Villanova, 6-3, 6-0, in the opening round before falling to Delaware's Tim Puterio, 6-1, 6-4, in the consolation.
In the opening round of the fourth flight, senior Clark Ruiz fell to Justin Burrus of Villanova, 6-1, 6-3, and sophomore Nick Ringle suffered a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Tyler Hansen of Lehigh. Junior David Pagliarulo fell to Delaware's Alex Sweet, 1-6, 6-2, 10-2, in the opening round and Lehigh's Jason Sutker, 7-6 (3), 6-1, in the consolation draw.
The SJU Invitational concludes on Sunday. Play begins at 9:00 a.m. with the semifinals of singles flights one through three being staged on the Maguire Campus and the consolation semifinals in flights one and two on the Finnesey Courts.
