Tennis Teams Conclude Play At ITA East Region Championships

9/16/2023 6:18:00 PM

By: CONTACT: Tom McDermott, Director of Athletics Communications | tmcdermo@daemen.edu

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 FLUSHING, N.Y. – Daemen University took part in the annual Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Division II East Region Championships being held this weekend at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center - site of the U.S. Open.

Daemen sent 12 student-athletes to the single-elimination competition – six women and six men. The Daemen women were represented by senior Frida Rubio (San Dielgo, Calif.), juniors Kitsa Scime (Williamsville, N.Y.), Yinett Del Leon (Cape Coral, Fla.) and Arianna Lysiak (Depew, N.Y.), sophomore Carly Armitage (Rochester, N.Y.) and freshman Maya Chon (Wichita, Kan.). The Daemen men were represented by graduate student Zachary Laplante (Ottawa, Ontario), fifth-year senior Luis de Vuyst (Antwerp, Belgium), junior Juan Alvarez (Puebla, Mexico), sophomores Alex Lumanog (Albuquerque, N.M.) and Rohan Chitanand (Den Haag, Netherlands) and freshman Lasse Mergens (Bochum, Germany).

WOMEN'S SINGLES DRAW
Rubio, Scime, Del Leon and Lysiak all played first-round matches, while Armitage and Chon drew first-round byes. Scime was the only Daemen player to come away with a singles win, as she cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 win over freshman Alice Fartushynski of Molloy University in the first round. Scime then faced sixth-seeded Jessica Purdy of Wilmington University in the second round and suffered a 7-5, 6-1 loss. Rubio lost her first-round match to Célia Bastin (6-3, 6-2) of the University of the District of Columbia. Del Leon fell to Claudia Bahamon of UDC (6-0, 6-2) in the opening round, while Lysiak dropped her first-round match (6-0, 6-0) to Alba Guijo of St. Thomas Aquinas College.

Armitage went up against 11^th-seeded Aynara Ferraz of Franklin Pierce University in the second round and suffered a 6-0, 6-1 setback. Chon drew second-seeded Maja Makal in the second round and suffered a 6-2, 6-2 loss.

WOMEN'S DOUBLES DRAW
All six players from Daemen took part in the doubles competition as well. De Leon and Chon suffered an 8-3 defeat to Augustina Ravera and Abby Murphy of the University of New Haven in the first round. Armitage and Lysiak won their first-round matchup by default, and then lost by default to Ebba Rosberg and Samantha Villegas Robles of St. Thomas Aquinas in the second round. The team of Rubio of Scime drew an opening round bye, and then battled 16^th-seeded Gloria Bacaro and Kushi Khandoji of Wilmington in the second round. The duo from Wilmington eventually prevailed, 9-8 (7-0).

MEN'S SINGLES DRAW
Five of the six Daemen men were eliminated in the opening round of singles play, while one advanced via default.

Lumanog defeated Noe Martin of Franklin Pierce by default in the first round, before suffering a 6-3, 6-1 loss to 14^th-seeded Viktor Hockl of Adelphi University in the second round. Other first-round matches saw Laplante lose to Francisco Gonzalez of Queens College (6-3, 6-2), de Vuyst lose to 16^th-seeded Cade Nadeau of Southern New Hampshire University (6-3, 6-3), and Chitanand lose to 10^th-seeded Casey Recci of Adelphi (6-3, 6-2). Newcomers Alvarez and Mergens both played well in their Daemen debuts. Alvarez went up against fifth-seeded Roni Rikkonen of Queens and lost 6-3, 6-2, while Mergens battled Tony Khamassi of St. Thomas Aquinas before suffering a 6-4, 4-6, 10-4 loss.

MEN'S DOUBLES DRAW
All six players from Daemen took part in the doubles competition as well. Lumanog and Alvarez battled Noah Cutting and Joao Sousa of Chestnut Hill College in the opening round and suffered an 8-5 loss. Chitanand and Mergens went up against fifth-seeded Jonathan Berling and Mevin Vix of Southern New Hampshire and lost 8-4. Laplante and de Vuyst faced Seth Newman and Henry Ronnberg of St. Thomas Aquinas in the first round and suffered and 8-3 setback.

TOURNAMENT NOTES

The opening round singles win was the team-leading fourth win of the year for Scime. It was also her 27^th career singles win, which ties her for fifth place among Daemen's all-time leaders for career singles wins.
The 2023-24 season is the 12th for both the Daemen men's and women's tennis teams. This marks the eighth time the teams have competed in the ITA East Region Championships.

UP NEXT
Both teams return to dual match play next week. The women host D'Youville Tuesday (Sept. 19), while the men travel to Rochester Institute of Technology on Wednesday (Sept. 20).

Daemen University features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.

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