LEWISBURG, PA – Bucknell men’s tennis got off on the right foot at last weekend’s season-opening tournament by winning three of four titles, but the Bison will have a new set of tests ahead of them this week as they split the squad to compete at the Farnsworth/Princeton and Mary St. Mary invitationals. Match play for both tournaments begins on Friday and runs through Sunday.
Of the Orange and Blue’s three titles at last week’s Bucknell Quad, two of them were career firsts for the players involved. Freshman Nick Bybel (Lancaster, Pa./Hilton Head Christian Academy (S.C.)) won Flight A singles in his collegiate debut and Aidan Lynch (La Canada, Calif./La Canada) and Kelly Morque (Rye, N.Y./Rye) claimed their first doubles title together. Josh Katten (Plainview, N.Y./Plainview JFK) was the only repeat winner, claiming his second career fall tournament title in singles.
Bybel cruised through the field without dropping a set on his way to the Flight A title. With a 6-4, 6-4 win over teammate Evan Zimmer (Essex Fells, N.J./West Essex) in the final, Bybel became the second Bison in as many years to earn a title in his first collegiate tournament. Octavio Canibe (Spring, Texas/The John Cooper School) won at the 2011 Bucknell Invitational, kicking off his singles career with a 9-0 start.
Lynch and Morque teamed up for the first time in their careers last weekend, and the combination seemed to work as it ended in a tournament title. It was the first career title of any kind for Lynch and the first in doubles for Morque. The senior also has three singles title as a Bison, having won the Northeast Intercollegiate, UConn Invitational and Bucknell Invitational as a sophomore.
Katten was the ultimate winner in Flight C singles, giving him his first tournament title since his freshman campaign. With his 3-0 weekend, which included a 6-3, 6-1 victory over teammate Chris Tortora (West Orange, N.J./Seton Hall Prep) in the final, Katten made his first move of the season up the Bucknell record lists. The senior is now sixth all-time in singles wins (56-39), fifth in doubles (61-31) and tied for fourth in combined wins (117-70). Three more singles victories will move him into the top five of that category, making him one of three Bison to be ranked among the top five in both singles and doubles. Only Ira Reieisen, who is first in singles and third in doubles, and Ryan Sandburg, who is second in singles and first in doubles, can also claim that honor.
A handful of other Bison also made inroads in the record books. Zimmer is now tied for 19th with former teammate Gregg Cohenca in singles with a 48-28 career record. Most of his success has come on the doubles court however, making him seventh all-time in doubles (59-27) and eighth in combined wins (107-55). Fellow senior Morque also cracked the top 25 in doubles (tied 13th, 48-40), singles (tied 21st, 38-25) and combined wins (18th, 86-65). The next Bison looking to join the historic group is Kyle Rosen (Armonk, N.Y./Byram Hills), who with a singles record of 30-29 needs eight more victories to move into the record books.
After the split-squad weekend, Bucknell will reunite and turn its attention to the St. Joseph’s Invitational Sept. 21-23 in Philadelphia.
