The Illinois Tech Men’s Tennis team played its first match in team history on September 27 against Judson. They fell 9-0. Franklin Zhong, Broderick Croonquist, and Michael Rivich competed in the ITA Midwest Regionals on September 29 at Kalamazoo College.

Match Highlights – Judson

• In doubles, the Scarlet Hawks had a few close calls. The #2 doubles tandem of Zhong and Abhishek Rana fell 9-7, while the #3 doubles team of Croonquist and Adam Laitinen lost 8-6.
• Zhong, playing out of the #1 singles position, played a close match, losing 7-5, 6-2.

Match Highlights – ITA Regionals

Zhong impressed, defeating Michael Connolly 6-0, 6-0. In the round of 64, Zhong fell to the tournament’s 17th overall seed, Johnathan Kroot of WashU, 6-2, 6-1.

Croonquist also played well in his singles matches. In the first round, he defeated John Carroll’s Dillon O’Brien 6-2, 6-3. He then fell to the 25th overall seed, Ban van der Sman, 7-5, 6-3 in the next round.

In doubles, Zhong and Rivich matched up against Robert Stroup and Vivitkh Vemula, falling 8-2. In backdraw, Zhong and Rivich fell to Hope College’s Timothy Roe and Mark Vanderstoep 8-1.

The Men’s Tennis program has now wrapped up its fall competitions and will resume play in January.