WILKES-BARRE, PA - The Susquehanna University men's tennis team opened their season gloriously at this weekend's King's Invitational, hosted by the Monarchs at Kirby Park. Before Sunday afternoon rain put an early end to the day and several finals matches incomplete, the doubles team of Eli Markle and Gavin Reams won the fourth flight of the doubles tournament, leading the River Hawks where all four tandems made the finals in their respective flights. First-year Daniel Murphy captured the singles title in the sixth flight, while Susquehanna's entries in the fourth, fifth, and seventh flights all captured first-round victories.
Murphy led the River Hawks with his No. 6 singles win, opening with a victory over Ethan Zelinsky, 6-0 and 6-1. He had a tight matchup against Scranton's Nathan Harrison next, prevailing by 6-4 and 7-5 sets. In the championship round, he defeated Cody Zheng of King's College with two 6-1 victories. Owen Miller, entered at flight four, defeated his first-round opponent Ryan Kraychik of Elizabethtown by 6-3 and 6-2 scores. Ream was Susquehanna's entry at five singles, defeated Penn Tech's Cruz Nagle with 6-0 and 6-2 sets. In the seventh flight, Carson Barry won his opening-round matchup against ETown's Ethan Zelinsky, winning by 6-1 and 6-0 scores.
No. 4 doubles for the River Haws saw Ream and Markle advance to the finals after victories over Misericordia's Hunter Wesolowskiv and Noah Ceklosky, 8-1, then posting a similar score against another Misericordia tandem of Dominic Brower and Christian Mazza for the championship. No 1. doubles team Thomas Hallahan and Harry Becraft defeated Misericorida's Mikey Dylina and Dalton Alexander, then beat Manhattanville's James Hourihan and James Hourihan 8-0. Their finals match would not be realized however, as the rain set in. No. 2 doubles Carson Berry and Alex Baker defeated Scranton 8-4 to advance to the finals where they were leading 1-0 before the match was suspended due to rain. The River Hawks No 3. Doubles of Owen Miller and Daniel Murphy defeated Lycoming's Josh Neidert and Domanick Young, 8-1, to advance to the semifinals match against King's Brendan Turowski and Jacob Nelson. Rain, however, suspended the match.
The River Hawks are set to begin match play this Wednesday when they host Penn Tech on Wednesday September. 20 at 4 p.m. at the Garrett Complex Tennis Courts.
