Arizona men’s tennis sophomore Trevor James captured the tournament championship over the weekend at the Aggie Invitational in Las Cruces, N.M.
James won all four of his singles matches, beating opponents from Western New Mexico, Northern Arizona, New Mexico and Abilene Christian.
James defeated Nico Agritelley of Abilene Christian in a three-set match to win the finals. He lost the first set in a tiebreaker, 6-7(4). However, he went on to comfortably win the next two sets, 6-3, 6-3, to claim the title.
The Aggie Invitational was noteworthy for assistant coach Arron Spencer as he guided the Wildcats to a successful tournament run. This tournament marked Spencer’s first try as head coach for the Wildcats.
“I was very proud of the guys [Sunday],” Spencer said. “On [Friday] we talked about closing out better and today we won every single set we had a lead in. The guys fought hard and once they got a lead they never let go. I can’t ask for any more than that.”
Head coach Tad Berkowitz gave Spencer the coaching reins for last weekend as he thought it was in the team’s best interest to familiarize itself with both coaches. Berkowitz’s idea evidently paid off, as Arizona was able to bring home the title.
Meanwhile, Arizona started out the tournament with strong doubles play as it won all four of its matches Friday.
Junior Carlos Bermudez, sophomore Matt Dunn, junior Robin Chou and James all contributed to Sunday’s undefeated trend.
Bermudez and Dunn were teammates for the weekend as they split their four matches, winning two. James’ doubles partner was Chou. The two were also victorious in two of their four matches.
Bermudez and Dunn claimed victories over competitors from Abilene Christian as well as NAU. James and Chou’s two wins came over participants from New Mexico and Western New Mexico.
Eight of 10 Arizona players have participated in play through the first two tournaments. Those include Bermudez, Chou, Dunn, James, Sumeet Shinde, Naoki Takeda, Kieren Thompson and Mario Urquidi.
Senior Fredrik Ask and junior Ben Lee have yet to play. However, it’s expected that they’ll both be in action within the next few weeks.
Arizona men’s tennis continues tournament play Sept. 28 to Oct. 4 in Tulsa, Okla., where it will compete in the ITA All-American Championships.
— Follow Zach Tennen @ZTennen11
