Cowboy Tennis Wraps Up Play at ITA Central Regional Championships

Thursday, October 21

Lincoln, Neb.

Oklahoma State University

ITA Regionals

Cowboy Tennis Wraps Up Play at ITA Central Regional Championships

October 23, 2021 | Cowboy Tennis

Lincoln, Neb. - Members of the Oklahoma State men's tennis team wrapped up play today at the ITA Central Regional Championship at the University of Nebraska.

Upperclassmen Luke Hammond and Max Verboven highlighted the weekend for the Cowboys, advancing to the quarterfinal round in doubles play.

The veteran duo first battled against the Arkansas tandem of Josh Bortnick and Foster Rogers. The Pokes did not waste any time cruising to an 8-2 victory. In the round of 32, the momentum continued with an 8-6 victory against Markus Bolin and Matija Matic from Drake University.

The duo tallied an 8-7(5) win against Orel Ovil and Zach Grueber to punch a ticket to the quarterfinals. Their run came to an end against Nebraska's Victor Moreno Lozano and Dario Huber, 6-4, 7-5 [10-0].

The freshman-sophomore duo of Leighton Allen and Fran Pini had a bye in the first round of doubles play, before a back-and-forth match went the way of Victor Moreno Lozano and Dario Huber, 8-6.

Thursday started strong for OSU, Max Verboven and Leighton Allen had byes in the first round of singles.

Fran Pini dealt a 6-0, 7-6(5) straight-set loss to Callum Gale of the University of Tulsa to advance to the next round. Pini then squared-off with Luke Mrisic from Wichita State, where an evenly-matched battle would go the way of the Shocker, 6-2, 6-7(3), 7-6(7).

Verboven's faced off with Albert Sprlak-Puk from the University of Nebraska, where he emerged with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 victory to move into the next round. His run would come to an end to Mark Mandlik from the University of Oklahoma, 6-3, 6-3.

Luke Hammond emerged victorious with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-0 win over Matthew Lanahan from Creighton University. The momentum followed Hammond en route to another victory against Connor Di Marco from the University of Tulsa, 6-5, 5-6, 6-3. Hammond's successful run came to an end in the round of 32 to Ezequiel Santalla from the University of Tulsa, 7-6(5), 6-2.

Allen's first opponent of the day was Victor Sklenka from Omaha, where he didn't miss a beat with a 6-4, 6-2 victory. However, a hard-fought battle in the round of 32 went the way of Stefan Hampe from the University of Tulsa, 6-3. 6-3.