Matthew Olson – Staff Writer
One week after the Gustavus women’s tennis team hosted the 2022 ITA Division III Midwest Regional Championship, the men’s team hosted their own branch of the tournament. The men’s team was just as successful, with five out of the eight quarter finalists in the singles draw and three of the four pairs in the doubles semifinal being Gusties. With a second place finish in both singles and doubles, the Gusties will have players in both draws representing the team in the national tournament later this month.
Sophomore Marco Siviero was the leader of the singles draw for the Gusties. Seeded seventh, Siviero took his wins at a steady pace, easily making it out of the first three rounds in games of 1-0, 3-2 and 6-1, respectively.
The round of 16 was when Siviero saw the slight disadvantage of having such a strong team around him. With nine of the 16 members of the round being Gusties, the brackets began pitting teammates against each other. Fourth-seeded Senior Daniel Fouchier also experienced this, falling to fellow Gustie First-year Tyler Haddorf.
“When you play your teammates, it’s actually a good thing because the tournaments are set up so that if it does happen then it takes a while for you both to get there. So playing teammates means you’re both having a really good run. Obviously you still want to win in the moment but after it’s over you’re just happy someone from your team is moving on,” Fouchier said.
Siviero faced Gustie Senior Oscar Wikström in the round of 16 before moving onto the quarterfinals. Here he faced another Gustie, Sophomore Taona Mhwandagara, before advancing to the semifinals against the second-seeded Tarm Rojanasoonthon from Carleton. After a major 1-5 upset, Siviero was able to make it to Monday morning’s final to face Luther’s 14 seed Luke Westholder.
Though Siviero fell to Westholder in the final, his second place finish granted him a spot in the Nationals tournament in just a few weeks.
“I think I was able to really step up my game. I was playing pretty solid and aggressively and even though I wasn’t really able to keep that energy on Monday I still feel pretty good with where I’m at,” Siviero said.
The doubles draw was just as incredible for the Gusties. As the quarterfinals of the singles draw saw five of the eight as Gusties, the doubles draw saw the exact same, with five pairs out of the eight being Gusties. The doubles draw is also where most of those five Gustie representatives advanced, with three pairs moving from that group to the semifinals.
Siviero and his partner Senior Sourabh Terakanambi were the fifth-seeded pair and fell to the first-seeded Zakowski and Van Donslear of UW Whitewater after defeating brother duo Freshman Tyler and Senior Luke Haddorf.
Fouchier and his partner Senior Alex Budde also made it to the semifinals. Fouchier once again faced teammates, though this time it was Senior Drew Elofson and First-year Gage Gohl. Elofson and Gohl completed the upset in an 8-7 match and moved onto the finals.
The final round came right down to the wire, with Gohl and Elofson losing the first set 4-6 and winning the second 6-3. The final set, a 10-point tiebreaker, went all the way to a win-by-two debate, ending in a 12-10 loss and the championship going to UW-W’s Zakowski and Van Donslear.
“I knew I was gonna have my work cut out for me playing at the collegiate level but when we executed the things we were trying to work on and control ourselves then points just started to go our way. We know that when we step out on the court that we’re capable of competing with anyone if we just stay focused and play well together,” Gohl said.
Elofson felt the same way about his doubles performance. “It was a rollercoaster match at the end. I’m still pretty confident going on, though. Gage is a super strong player, especially for a first-year. I feel like that championship match gives us a little boost moving on knowing that we can hang with these teams and remembering the match isn’t over until it’s game-set-match,” Elofson said.
The strength of the duo is undoubtedly apparent and the support from the rest of the team, whether they were on the other side of the court or not, definitely adds an extra layer of strength.
“They played really well against me and Daniel and against the other squads they faced. They’re in that mindset where if they keep it up they can really beat anybody. It’ll be fun to see how they keep that up at Nationals and hopefully they can go in there and take care of business,” Budde said.
With Elofson and Gohl’s second-place finish in the doubles draw and Siviero’s in the singles, the Gustavus men’s tennis team will most definitely be known at the Nationals tournament in Georgia later this month.