The Iowa men’s and women’s tennis teams competed in two of the biggest tournaments of the fall season this week at the All-American Championships.
Tulsa, Oklahoma, held the men’s tournament, and Iowa sent freshmen Will Davies and Joe Tyler and seniors Jake Jacoby and Josh Silverstein.
The tournament was set up so the athletes had to qualify for the main draw, which started Sept. 27. Davies, Tyler, and Jacoby each had to compete in the pre-qualifying draw to earn their way into the qualifying draw, which then led them to the main draw.
Tyler notched his first college win in a singles match on Sept. 30 against Wake Forest’s Julian Zlobinsky (6-4, 6-1). The freshman advanced to the round of 128, where he lost, and fell out of the tournament, to Georgia Tech’s Chris Yun (6-2, 6-0).
Davies also secured his first win as a college athlete. He beat Troy’s Pelayo Antuna Meana (6-4, 6-2).
“I am happy to get my first win, my first time out,” Davies said in a release. “It is a big confidence booster, and I can’t wait to get back out there tomorrow.”
Davies did not have the same success the next day; he was handed his first college loss by the No. 7 seed from Oklahoma, Ferran Calvo, in straight sets (6-2, 6-3).
“It was good to see Joe and Will compete for the first time in college matches,” head coach Ross Wilson said in a release. “Both guys have made significant improvements in practice over the past month, and it was good to see them execute.”
On Monday, the Hawkeye duo of Davies and Jacoby were handed another loss in a three-set tie breaker to Western Michigan’s Maik Steiner and Eric Olivarez, officially knocking the pair out of the tournament.
With three of the four Hawkeyes out of the men’s tournament, the load was put on Silverstein’s shoulders. His section of the singles tournament started on Monday; he had previously played into the qualifying bracket. Silverstein notched his third singles win of his fall season as he topped Texas’ Adrian Ortiz (6-2, 3-6, 6-1) to advance to the round of 64, in which he faced Big Ten athlete Noe Khlif of Illinois on Tuesday.
Khlif proved too much for Silverstein, and the Hawkeye fell in straight sets (6-3, 6-3).
The men will next play at the Notre Dame Invitational Friday through Oct. 8.
The women’s section of the tournament was held in Los Angeles this past weekend. The Hawkeyes sent senior Zoe Douglas and sophomore Elise van Huevelen to LA on Sept. 30 to showcase their singles and doubles skills.
On the first day of the tournament, the two split singles matches. Douglas defeated Madison Westby of USC, then fell to Wichita State’s Fatima Bizhukova.
Van Huevelen topped Elpida Malamou of Western Kentucky, but fell to Wendy Zhang of Rice. The single elimination tournament meant that both of their week’s singles’ campaigns were over. More exciting, the No. 42 doubles team of Douglas and van Huevelen was just starting.
On Tuesday, in a close match with Oregan’s Alyssa Tobita and Rifanty Khafiani, a pair ranked No. 48 nationally, the Hawkeye duo fell (8-6). The loss knocked Douglas and van Huevelen out of the tournament.
