The Mason men's tennis started strong in day one action at the Mason Invitational, winning six of eight singles flight matches against Mary Washington.
At the top singles position, Tanner Baine defeated Tyler Carey 6-2, 0-6, 7-6 (7-4). Jimmy Lange beat Stratton Gilmore 6-3, 6-4 at No. 2 singles. Joe Hill scored a 6-3, 6-2 win over David Lunding Johansson at three singles. Aaron Capitel beat Brandon Griffin 7-5, 6-4 at the fourth position. The Patriots Daniel Gutierrez and Amir Alkhafaji each notched a 6-4, 6-4 wins over Eric Hurwitz and Andrew Curtis at six and seven singles.
The Patriots and Eagles split fhe four doubles matches, with the Patriots winning at one and two, while dropping the three and four positions. Joe Hill and Jimmy Lange scored an 8-3 victory against Tyler Carey and Evan Charles, while the team of Nick Barker and Aaron Capitel beat Stratton Gilmore and Brandon Griffin 8-5 at two doubles.
In second round singles the Patriots faced a strong UMBC squad. Mason's lone win came at number six where Daniel Gutierrez beat Jeremy Gibbons 6-2, 6-2.
“Mary Washington always puts a very competitive squad on the courts. We know that, and we played well in our first round matches with them today. Against UMBC we created opportunities in a number of the matches. The next step for us is to follow through on those opportunities,” said coach Quam.
Action resumes on Sunday with the following schedule:
10:00 am
Mason vs Mount St. Mary's in doubles
UMBC vs Mary Washington in doubles
11:00 am
Mason vs UMBC in doubles
Mary Washington vs Mt. St. Marys in doubles
1:00 pm
UMBC vs Mary Washington in singles
2:30 pm
Mason vs Mt. St. Mary's in singles.