The women’s team opened its season in Midland last weekend with headline wins from junior Lucile Pothier and freshman Nini Memishishi.
Pothier reached the singles’ quarterfinals at Midland Racquet Club Invitational before falling to the No. 1 seed Maria Shishkina from Tyler Junior College, and Memishishi fell in the finals of the flight two back draw. Sophomore Jordan Henry reached the quarterfinals in the flight two singles before Nanaka Takenchi defeated her 6-0 and 7-5.
The men’s team also competed at the Midland Racquet Club last weekend, but only a few, as others traveled to New Mexico State for the Aggie Invitational.
Sheehy and his younger brother Jonathan Sheehy earned wins over Texas and Rice and battled the top seed from Utah State to a 6-4 victory. The Sheehy brothers doubles’ run came to and end in the finals against Colin Markes and Adrian Ortiz 8-5. Josh also made it to the round of 16 in singles, and senior Henry Adams fought his way to the finals of Flight Two, but lost in a tiebreaker 10-7 to Joao Ceolin from UTSA.
Sheehy said he is pleased with how the opening tournament of the season played out.
“It’s a tremendous way to begin the season because it shows that all the extra work we did during the summer is paying off early,” Sheehy said. “I have extra confidence now knowing it can only get better from here an I can’t wait to improve in the next tournament.”
ACU’s men went 4-5 in doubles at New Mexico State and were 11-11 in singles. Senior Paul Domanski and junior Hunter Holman secured a spot in the championship match of the main draw but lost in the finals, 8-6, to a team from Western New Mexico. Freshman Joaquin Delgado impressed in his collegiate debut, as he defeated Alejandro Rojas from New Mexico State, 6-4, 6-4, to earn the Black Draw Championship.
Pothier will travel with Josh Sheehy this weekend to the ITA Oracle Masters at Pepperdine. Sheehy, who has been a No. 1 singles competitor for the Wildcats for the past two seasons and was Southland Conference Freshman of the Year, is making his ITA Masters debut. Pothier, a former First Team All-Southland honoree returns to for the second straight season.
The rest of the women’s team will resume play Oct. 6 at the SMU Invitational, while the men will host the Walmart Invitational this weekend.
