CARY, N.C. – Virginia Tech had a strong first day at the Duke Nike Fab Four Invite in Cary, N.C. as both men’s tennis doubles teams advanced to their respective flight championship matches to be played on Saturday.
Tech got off to a strong start on Friday with four victories in doubles. The No. 27 ranked duo of Luka Somen and Corrado Degl’ Incerti Tocci defeated South Carolina’s Chip Cox and Nick Jones, 8-2 in the opening round.
In the second round, the Tech tandem faced off against No. 15 Chris Mengel and Henrique Cunha of Duke. The two teams played a tight match, but the Tech team secured the win with a score of 9-8.
Tocci and Somen will face UNC’s Joey Burkhardt and Oystein Steiro in the A flight finals on Saturday.
Lucas Oliveira and Hunter Koontz also picked up a pair of wins in doubles action. The pair secured an 8-5 decision over South Carolina’s Carl Eguez and Andrew Adams in the first round of competition.
The Virginia Tech pair wasted no time in the second round as they defeated Radford’s Nick Sayer and Thomas Dehaen, 8-4. Oliveira and Koontz are set to play Elon’s Eric Turner and Cameron Silverman on Saturday in the B flight finals.
In the white flight singles, No. 25 Somen picked up a win in straight sets over Radford’s Patrick O’Keefe with scores of 6-1, 6-0. He moves on to play Louisville’s Sebastian Stiefelmeyer on Saturday.
Doubles matches will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 17 at the Cary Tennis Park. Singles matches are scheduled to start at 10 a.m.
Doubles
Flight B
Singles
Jamie Whiteford (W&M) def. Lucas Oliveira (VT) 6-2, 7-5
Blue Flight
Black Flight
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