The men’s tennis season started early for Illinois Tech, as the Scarlet Hawks opened the season this past weekend at the Olivet Nazarene Invite. Playing both singles and doubles against scholarship competition, the tournament served as a great barometer of the team’s talent moving forward into the spring of 2020.

Singles Highlights

• Davis Housman won the most matches of the weekend, going 3-1. He defeated Eastern Illinois’ Kyle Burton (6-3, 6-3) and two of his own teammates, Jack Pio (6-0, 6-0) and Adam Laitinen (6-1, 6-1).
• Two freshmen, Andy Fang and Andre Torres, went 2-1 on the weekend. Fang defeated Luke Fleming of Olivet Nazarene 6-2, 6-3 before an impressive win over another ONU product, Nadrian Fiesta, 6-2, 7-5.
• Torres had a tough win over ONU’s Jon Merki 6-1, 3-6, 10-6 before beating his teammate, Huy Ngo, 6-0, 6-2.
• Laitinen, Mohammed Shamel, Roman Shishlov, and Ngo all tallied a singles win.

Doubles Highlights

• Two pairings for the Scarlet Hawks went 1-1. Andre Torres and Adam Laitinen downed teammates Housman and Brody Croonquist 6-4 for their win.
• After falling to two teammates, Housman and Croonquist defeated Burton and Luka Knieling of EIU 6-1.

Up Next

• This Sunday, the Scarlet Hawks will play in a doubles tournament at Lake Forest College.