Mountain Hawks wrap up Villanova Invitational

Friday, September 13

Villanova, PA

Lehigh University

Villanova University

Photo by: Brent Hugo

Mountain Hawks wrap up Villanova Invitational

9/15/2019 9:38:00 PM | Men's Tennis

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – Competing in the fall opener, the Lehigh men's tennis team concluded play on Sunday evening. The Mountain Hawks spent the last three days competing in the Villanova Invitational.

Despite competing with only six players, Lehigh showed its promise as all six players made solid contributions throughout the weekend. In a unique format, all teams at the tournament were split into doubles groups that played a doubles match against their opponent with the victor in the best-of-3 moving on.

The freshmen pair of Michael Bukhalo and Jeremy Learner stole the show for the Brown and White. The two newcomers made it all way to the championship match in the blue draw. The two men tallied three wins over pairs from Lafayette, Case Western and Villanova. In the final match, the duo was bested by Villanova's Daniel Cheng and Justin Suarez. As a pair, the freshmen tallied a 3-1 mark in doubles over the weekend.

As well in the blue draw, the Lehigh pair of Gary Fishkin and Andrew Nakhjavan won the first match. The duo bested Case Western's Diego Maza and Max Vicario 6-2, and then dropped a semifinal matchup to Villanova's Cheng and Suarez.

In the white draw, the Lehigh pair of Zack Elliott and Harry Wang represented the Mountain Hawks in a great way as they torched Lafayette's Will Barry and Daniel Kramer in the first round, 6-1. Then in the next round, the duo was topped by Case Western's pair of Matt Chen and James Hopper. Still competing, Elliot and Wang topped Colgate's pair of Bickel and Hartman and then Saint Joseph's Frisk and Massart to seal a fifth-place finish.

In singles play, Elliot went 3-1. The sophomore picked up wins against Lafayette's Barry 6-3, 6-0, Case Western's Chen 8-3 and Nicholas Frisk of Saint Joseph's. Wang also went 3-1 throughout the weekend. His wins came against Daniel Kramer, also of Lafayette 8-2, Peter Hartman of Colgate 8-5 and Massart 8-2.

Fishkin had himself a weekend in singles play. The sophomore tallied a perfect 4-0 mark, while Nakhjavan, his teammate went 1-3.

Finally, the two freshman each registered a 3-1 mark in singles. Two of Bukhalo's win came in exciting three-setters. His teammate and another freshman, Jeremy Learner in the final round picked up a nail-biting win in three sets over Nova's Justin Suarez. The win clinched his third victory of the weekend.

Starting next weekend, the men will be in action next weekend competing at the Saint Joseph's Invitational from Sep. 20 to Sep. 22.