Two Texas A&M men’s singles players advanced to the quarterfinals at ITA Regionals this Sunday. The event, which is being held at 12 different locations throughout the country, including the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, ultimately feeds into the ITA National Indoors tournament in New York in early November.
Texas A&M’s No.2 Harrison Adams, the second seed in the singles bracket, drew a first round bye in the Round of 128 and then defeated Steven McMullan from Lamar University in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1, in Round of 64 action on Saturday prior to advancing to Sunday competition. The match served as his first main draw victory for the Fall season.
Adams carried his success from Saturday over to Sunday, defeating Peter Nagy from Texas A&M Community College, 6-3, 6-4, in the Round of 32. Adam’s victory was revenge for fellow teammate Max Montague, who lost to Nagy in the Round of 64. Adams then defeated Srikar Alla, Rice University’s primary Line One singles player from a year ago, 6-1, 6-3. In doing so, Adams advanced to the quarterfinals and moved to 3-0 for the tournament.
Similarly, Texas A&M’s No. 46 Jeremy Efferding earned a spot in the quarterfinals after winning three matches throughout Saturday and Sunday. Efferding, the seventh seed in the bracket, defeated University of Texas Arlington’s Mario Muniesa on Saturday in the round of 64 before running the tables on Sunday against Texas Tech University’s Francisco Zambon and University of Texas Arlington’s Tomas Stillman. Efferding defeated Zambon in a three set grind, 6-7, 6-2, and 7-5, and then outmatched Stillman, the 12th-seed in the bracket, 7-6, 6-3.
Adams and Efferding are the last two standing for the Aggies, who had nine players entered in the singles bracket. With their other teammates considered, A&M singles is 16-6 in the tournament. Head coach Steve Denton has been impressed, but not satisfied with their performance thus far in the tournament.
“Well, it’s been a long couple of days,” Denton said. “Lots of matches for our guys, and I thought that our guys have played pretty well here. We won some close matches, we had a couple of matches that we let get away, too, in our singles matches. But that’s all part of this Fall process, you know, learning from their mistakes, and then the guys, obviously, getting more matches, trying to build some confidence for us, because we’re not too long from when it’s going to be the Spring time.”
Adams and Efferding both play competitors from the University of Texas in the quarterfinals Monday at 9 a.m. as they look to advance to the tournament semifinals. Efferding will face Texas’s Line One singles player and preseason No. 5 in the nation, Soren Hess-Olesen, the bracket’s first-seed. Adams matchup is with No. 106 and 10th-seed Adrien Berkowicz. Berkowicz, who went 27-11 in singles a year ago for Texas, also ousted Texas A&M’s Max Lunkin, 6-2, 6-2, en route to his quarterfinal appearance with Adams.
Doubles competition for the ITA Regionals ran late Sunday night, and Texas A&M had three doubles teams advance to the Round of 16 from Saturday, including A.J. Catanzariti and Max Lunkin, No. 37 Jeremy Efferding and Jordan Szabo, and No. 23 Harrison Adams and Shane Vinsant.