Spiders Compete at Monarch Invitational

Friday, September 29

Norfolk, Va.

All Day

University of Richmond

Monarch Invite

10/02/2017 | Men's Tennis

NORFOLK, Va. – The University of Richmond men's tennis team continued to show promise in fall play this past weekend at the Monarch Invitational, hosted by Old Dominion.

Junior Brice Polender, sophomores Matt Fernandez and George Lovitt, and freshman Joseph Nardini all competed over the weekend in both singles and doubles action.

"This weekend was another great opportunity for the guys to get a bunch of matches," head coach Houston Barrick said. "I was interested in seeing how we responded to playing back-to-back weekends."

Lovitt and Fernandez paired up in doubles play, falling in the opening round but bouncing back to win the consolation bracket with an 8-6 win over a pair from Charlotte and an 8-5 win over Steinour and Arce from James Madison.

Lovitt continued his success with a consolation win in the Navy singles draw, going 3-1 and taking down Hampton's Matthew Foster-Estwick, 6-3, 6-3 in the consolation final. Fernandez also competed in the Navy draw, dropping his opening match but bouncing back with a 6-3, 7-5 win over James Madison's Pierre Kohler before eventually falling to Foster-Estwick.

"I was especially proud of George," Barrick added. "He was disappointed in his results from our tournament at Liberty, so to see him have a successful weekend was great."

Polender and Nardini each took their opening matches in the Silver singles draw, before falling in the quarterfinal round. Poldender then went 2-0 in the win-lose bracket, defeating JMU's Alvaro Arce and Hampton's Charlie Hudson.

The Spiders will take a short break from competition before returning to Lynchburg, Virginia, to compete at the ITA Atlantic Regionals.

"We have a couple weeks off to really focus on our training, and I'm excited to see how we do as a group at Regionals," Barrick said.

The ITA Regional round is set for October 19-23, hosted by Liberty.