MERION STATION, Pa. – Five doubles pairings opened play for the Saint Joseph's men's tennis team at the 10th annual Saint Joseph's Invitational, which kicked off at the SJU Tennis Complex on Friday afternoon.
In the top flight, junior Beekman Schaeffer and sophomore Sam Sauter earned an 8-6 win in their opening round match against Harford's John Brett and Adam Larsen. The pair would drop their quarterfinal matchup against Xandy Hammitt and Sinan Orhon of Drexel, 8-4.
All three Hawks teams in the second flight won their opening tilts. Senior Alexander Schneider and junior Eshan Kanetkar defeated La Salle's Andrija Bozovic and Patrick Pascual, 8-4, to secure a place in the quarterfinals, where they will meet a duo from Villanova.
Senior Dan Tan teamed with junior Luis Janko for a 9-7 win over Astro and Luis Marcano of Delaware before falling, 8-6, to Bucknell's Adrien Crastes and Drew Krantz.
Junior Scott Battaglia and sophomore Alex MacNeil notched an early win with an 8-3 result over Harford's Adria Aguilar Guerrero and Nicolas Segui Verdu, but went out in the next round by an 8-5 score to Zack Elliott and Gary Fishkin of Lehigh.
Senior Andre Fick and sophomore Johnnie Massart suffered an opening-round setback in flight number one, falling to Joe Cartledge and Austin Gu of Johns Hopkins, 8-5.
The Saint Joseph's Invitational continues on Saturday, with singles play set to commence at 8:00 a.m.
