ROME, Ga. – The Bellarmine University men's tennis duo of
Jack Batchelor and
Matthew Nice completed competition at the ITA Conference Masters Championships over the weekend, nearly earning a bid to the NCAA Tournament as a duo.
Batchelor and Nice were selected by the ASUN to represent the conference at the event in doubles with Batchelor serving as the men's individual rep.
"It was a great honor for our guys to be chosen for such a prestigious event. I want to thank the ASUN and Bellarmine for providing such a tremendous opportunity to our guys," said Bellarmine head coach
Will Davis. "I look forward to our future as a program and the opportunities it will bring."
As a single, Batchelor played well, going 2-2. After dropping his opening draw, Batchelor settled into a grove in the consolation bracket, defeating opponents from Sienna and North Dakota 6-1, 6-1 and 6-4, 6-4, respectively, making it all the way to the consolation finals match. In the finals, Batchelor attempted to rally late but ultimately fell to his opponent from UNLV.
"It was an honor to be selected and to go represent Bellarmine and the ASUN at a tournament such as the ITA Conference Masters," Batchelor said of the event. "It was a positive way to close out the fall by putting in some good singles performances over the week and now the focus moves over to carrying the momentum and progress into the spring season."
In doubles, the pair showed why they were selected to compete. In their opening draw, Nice and Batchelor topped their opponents from DePaul 6-3, 7-6. The duo brought home their best win of the weekend in their sweet sixteen matchup, topping the five-seed duo from Princeton 6-4, 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinals. Playing the number three seed pair form Hawaii, Batchelor and Nice fell in the first set 3-6 but bounced back to take the second set 7-6. In the final tie-break set, the duo came up just short, falling 8-10 to end their bid. Nice and Batchelor were one win away from potentially punching their ticket to the NCAA Tournament. The duo represented Bellarmine and the ASUN well however, earning a top eight finish in the event.
"It was a great opportunity to represent Bellarmine and the ASUN by competing at such a big competition against teams from all over the country," Nice said of the opportunity. "I'm obviously very proud of the way myself and Matt competed, reaching the elite 8 and being so close to the Final 4," Batchelor added.
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