Men's Tennis 9/20/2015 9:00:00 PM

Men's tennis impresses with six flight titles at King's Invitational

Results

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – The fall season couldn't have gotten off to a much better start for the Elizabethtown College men's tennis team. The Blue Jays won six flight championships between singles and doubles at the King's College Invitational Saturday and Sunday.

Senior Evan Hinkley, junior Nathan Dowling, sophomore Michael Yost and freshman Nick Strobel were each crowned a champion twice on the weekend.

Dowling and Yost only played together five times last season, compiling a 3-2 record. Ironically, all five of those matches also came during the team's non-traditional season. The Blue Jay tandem won the No. 3 doubles flight at the 2014 King's College Invitational, but stepped up to No. 2 this weekend. They downed Misericordia's Christian Pugliese and Nick Hendry 8-6 in the semifinals and took the final 8-2 over Alex Cocolas and Nick Beal of Susquehanna, who were playing in their first match after a first round bye and semifinal injury walkover.

At No. 3 doubles, Hinkley matched up with the newcomer Strobel to take down a pair of Susquehanna entries for the title. Hinkley/Strobel were 8-1 victors over Ashton Collins and Austin Gow in the semifinals and cruised to an 8-4 win against Ryan Van Valin and Alex Dove in the championship match.

Elizabethtown's No. 1 team of Alex Machalick and Ryan Caris made a finals appearance, as well. Machalick/Caris edged Corey Dulsky and Tony Goodall (Misericordia), 8-6, in the semifinals, but were stopped by the King's duo of George Parkhurst and Nathan Karl, 8-4, in the title match.

The Blue Jays would find themselves up against familiar faces in singles championship matches. Yost swept Marywood's Brendan Brown 6-0, 6-0 in the semifinals at No. 3 singles, before getting matched up with Beal in the final. Just like the doubles result, this one also went to Yost 6-1, 6-4.

Machalick faced Parkhurst in the No. 1 final, dropping it 6-2, 6-2, and Caris fell 6-4, 7-5 in the No. 2 final to Carl.

Hinkley had to go the long route at No. 4, where he was one of two players to face a first round match. Hinkley made the best of his extra court time, dropping Marywood's Stephen Finkel by matching 6-0 scores. He would get a test from Cocolas in the semis before moving on in the super tiebreaker 7-6 (2), 4-6, 10-8. The senior from Denver, Pa., put away John Labiak of King's in straight sets for the title 6-3, 6-3.

No. 5 and No. 6 singles moved away from the bracket format to round-robin play.

Dowling's 3-0 record at No. 5 gave him the flight victory. He collected wins over Bennett Williams of King's (6-2, 7-6 (5)), Van Valin of Susquehanna (6-1, 4-1 (retired)) and Misericordia's Hendry in the de facto championship match (6-1, 6-1).

It was an equally impressive debut for Strobel at sixth singles where he also was unbeaten in three matches to take the flight. Strobel defeated Davide Fanelli of King's 6-0, 6-2, Casey Ramos of Marywood 6-2, 6-1 and Dove of Susquehanna 6-7 (7), 6-2, 10-6.

Following its superb weekend results, the Blue Jays will return to practice before finishing the competition side of its fall schedule with the USTA-ITA Southeast Regional Championships in Fredericksburg, Va., the first weekend of October.

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Players Mentioned

Ryan Caris: 5' 9"; Junior

Nathan Dowling: 5' 11"; Junior

Evan Hinkley: 5' 7"; Senior

Alex Machalick: 6' 0"; Junior

Nick Strobel: 5' 7"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

Ryan Caris
: 5' 9"; Junior

Nathan Dowling
: 5' 11"; Junior

Evan Hinkley
: 5' 7"; Senior

Alex Machalick
: 6' 0"; Junior

Nick Strobel
: 5' 7"; Freshman