CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (SMU) - SMU wrapped their fall-opener weekend with 14 individual wins at the Chowder Festival and Sherwood Collegiate Cup, Friday through Sunday.
"It's exciting to get the fall season going," said Head Coach Grant Chen. "Six Mustangs got a lot of competition this weekend (and) it was a great preparation for the rest of the semester."
Chowder Festival
Against a field of players from Illinois, Yale, Boise State and Harvard, Noah McDonald and Kale Mize combined for five wins at the Chowder Festival hosted by Harvard at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
SMU debutant, McDonald, grabbed singles wins over Harvard's Elisha Thornton (6-1, 6-3) and Boise State's Adam Duda (6-4, 7-6 (3)).
As a pair, McDonald and Mize won two doubles matches at the tournament. Their first win was over Harvard and Cornell combination pair James MacDonald and Rodrigo Fernandes (6-4) before defeating the 65th-ranked Boston College pair, Jake Vassel and Andy Ilie (6-4).
Mize wrapped the tournament's final day with a win over Idriss Haddouch from Boise State (6-2, 3-6, 10-8).
Sherwood Collegiate Cup
Vikas Deo, Hughes Peus, Maks Silagy and Xavier Calvelo combined for nine wins at the Sherwood Collegiate Cup at Thousand Oaks, California. The tournament featured players from Cal, University of Pacific, New Mexico, BYU, Pepperdine, LMU, USC and UCLA
Calvelo led the Mustangs by going undefeated with four singles and four doubles wins in his debut tournament. His first win for SMU came against Jacopo Denitto of LMU (6-2,6-1).
The Las Vegas native also bested BYU's Tygen Goldammer (6-4 6-1), Leo Von Bismarck from UCLA (6-1 7-6(4)) and New Mexico's Avery Tallakson (4-6 7-6(1) 6-3).
Calvelo paired with Silagy to win four matches for the Mustangs on the doubles bracket. The pair earned their first win against Pepperdine's Linus Carlsson Halldin and Zach Stephens (6-2), then proceeded to defeat BYU's Redd Owen and Chodur (6-3), Tristan Bradley and Connor Church from USC (7-6(6)) and Dario Ciobotaru and Tallakson from New Mexico (7-6(4)).
Silagy rounded up SMU's weekend with a singles win over BYU's Redd Owen (6-4 6-2).
"It was Nice to see several freshmen; Noah, Kale and Xavier get their first victories as Mustangs and to see several others competing," said Chen. "There are several things we need to work on in the next two weeks as we continue to progress (through the season)."
