2023-24 Shocker Men's Tennis

[1972Shocker]

[SubGod22]

Go Shockers - Tennis Pro Chad Kissell Joins Men's Tennis Staff

Head coach Darragh Glavin and the Wichita State men's tennis program announced the addition of Chad Kissell to the coaching staff on Tuesday afternoon.

"Chad is going to bring a lot to the table," Glavin said. "It's going to be great having someone with his experience as a part of our program."

Kissell played collegiately at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana. He was a two-time Horizon League All-League First Team selection, and he was named the Horizon League Freshman of the Year after the 2015-16 season. He totaled a singles record of 65-35, which includes a dominant 23-4 record in 2016-17 which set the Valparaiso Men's Tennis record for singles wins in a season.

In addition to his collegiate success, Kissell also played professionally, competing in the International Tennis Federation Men's Circuit. While on the circuit, Kissell climbed to a world ranking as high as #967 which he reached on June 12^th, 2023, and he currently sits ranked at #998.

"With the level of tennis Chad has played at and him playing on tour the last couple of years, he knows what it takes to play at the professional level, so he'll be able to bring a lot of competition to our guys in practice," Glavin said.

[1972Shocker]

Interesting. This must be part of the changes by the NCAA coming into this school year with voluntary assistants being phased out and with an additional full-time paid assistant added.

[1972Shocker]

Hodzic is interesting in that he is a 6'4" lefty.

Sepulveda is grad transfer from Florida Gulf Coast so will bring some experience. Not sure what his remaining eligibility is.

That brings the Shocker roster to 7 so not a lot of cushion to cover for injuries. We had 9 guys on last year's roster so more may be on the way. Maybe at the semester which is not unusual with foreign recruits.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Collect Six Wins at ITA Championships

The Wichita State men's tennis team battled at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships this weekend. Four Shockers collected wins with two advancing into the round of 64.

Alejandro Jacome and Vanja Hodzic each won their first two matches, before bowing out in the round of 64 in a pair of competitive matches.

Marcelo Sepulveda and Misha Kvantaliani collected wins in their opening matches and then both fell in the round of 128.

Richey King, Luke Bracks, and Kristof Minarik all dropped their opening matches, but Minarik picked up a win in his consolation match over Will Fullet of Wofford 6-2, 6-4.

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Overall the Shocks went 7-7.

[1972Shocker]

Vanja defeated Oklahoma State's Ty Wunderlich 6-1, 6-4 on Friday, Tulsa's Volodymyr Zakharov 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday and Oklahoma State's Carl Roothman 6-1, 6-3 on Sunday to reach the event finals. Apparently, due to time constraints the doubles finals was cancelled and the single's finals was truncated to a super tie breaker with Vanja falling to SMU's Eric Hadigian 10-8.

A pretty good weekend for Vanja, the Shocker freshman from Bosnia. Typically, OSU, Tulsa and SMU have pretty good men's tennis although I don't know that this event included the best players from the 4 schools. There were 14 players in the men's single's draw. 4 from OSU, Tulsa and SMU and 2 from WSU. Sophomore Richey KIng joining Vanja in the tournament but did not have much success.

[1972Shocker]

[1972Shocker]

Jacome Finishes in Singles Quarterfinals, Shockers Pick Up Eleven Wins at Central Regionals

https://goshockers.com/news/2023/10/22/mens-tennis-jacome-finishes-in-singles-quarterfinals-shockers-pick-up-eleven-wins-at-central-regionals.aspx

I counted 12 wins and an overall record of 12-10.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Set to Finish Fall in Florida

Shocker men's tennis will compete in their final fall competition of the year this weekend when they travel to Florida to compete in the Bonita Bay Classic Nov. 3-5.

"It will be good to see all seven of our guys play together in some real matches," said Glavin. "It'll be good to see how we do and how we compete against these top teams."

The Shockers are set to face a trio of opponents in the Sunshine State. They will compete in regular season style matches against Florida Gulf Coast (FGCU), Virginia Tech, and Purdue.

FGCU is coming off a year that saw them finish 15-9 and win the Atlantic Sun Conference Men's Tennis Championship over the University of North Florida. FGCU was the only team in the Atlantic Sun Conference to appear in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Southeast Regional rankings. A region that includes top teams like Georgia and Florida State.

Virginia Tech was ranked number five in the Atlantic Region by the ITA. The Hokies compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which saw 13 teams finish ranked inside the final ITA top-75 poll and is the conference that Virginia, the raining NCAA Men's Tennis National Champions, plays in.

Purdue competes in the Big Ten Conference, a league that features six teams that finished last year in the ITA top-75 teams.

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A tough way, but I think a good way, for the Shocks to close our their fall season of play. Not expecting all that much success but it will be interesting to see how the Shocks stack up to what appears to be very solid competition.

[1972Shocker]

[1972Shocker]

Shockers End Fall Campaign at Bonita Bay Classic

The Shockers went 1-2 in duel play on the weekend. They defeated Florida Gulf Coast (FGCU) on day one 6-1, then fell on Saturday 3-4 to Virginia Tech, and finally 3-4 to Purdue on Sunday.

Sophomore Alejandro Jacome and junior Kristof Minarik each went a perfect 3-0 in their singles matches on the weekend.

"Kristof and Alejandro's results this weekend shows they are playing some great tennis and will give us a lot of confidence going into our spring season" said Glavin.

"Our fall season as a whole was a success, and we have a lot to build off of going into the spring," said Glavin. "We now have a few weeks to work on some things and get ready and excited for our spring season to

[SubGod22]

Go Shockers - Shockers Begin Season with Trio of Battles in Arizona

The Wichita State men's tennis team is set to start the 2024 campaign against stiff competition in The Grand Canyon State.

The Shockers will open the year with three matches over two days in Arizona, beginning with a battle on January 11 against the Grand Canyon Lopes. They will follow that with two matches at Arizona State's Whiteman Tennis Center on January 12. The first match of the day two will be against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks at 12:00 PM and the second against host Arizona State at 4:00 PM.

SHOCKER NOTES

• The Shockers will enter the 2024 season looking to grow more from their 2023 campaign. The 2024 season will be the second for the Shockers under Darragh Glavin.
• The Shockers return five players from the 2023 roster along with three newcomers in Marcelo Sepulveda, Vanja Hodzic, and newest addition Ziwen Ju
• Hodzic and sophomore returner Alejandro Jacome led the Shockers in singles wins in the fall season with eight apiece.
• Hodzic finished as singles runner-up in Oklahoma State's Cowboy Classic on October 15, falling in a ten-point playoff to SMU's Eric Hadigian.
• On the doubles side, the Shocker duo of Jacome and Kristof Minarik collected the most wins in the fall, as they earned four wins and ended the fall on a two-match win streak.
• Graduate transfer Marcelo Sepulveda is expected to add depth and experience to the Shocker roster. The former Florida Gulf Coast and Alabama lineup regular has collected 30 singles wins and 43 doubles wins in his collegiate career so far.
• This is the second consecutive the Shockers will start the year with a trip to Arizona and second straight year they start the year against Grand Canyon.
• The Shockers are 2-0 against GCU all-time. They collected a 6-1 victory to open last season and a 4-2 win in the first ever meeting between the teams on March 4th, 2018.
• Wichita State has met Northern Arizona twice in history, but this will be the first match between the teams since March 9th, 1996, where the Shockers were blanked 0-7 in San Diego, California.
• The lone other meeting with the Lumberjacks came on March 11th, 1994, also in San Diego, where Shockers inked out a 4-3 victory.
• For their final opponent of the road trip, the Shockers will meet Arizona State where the Shockers will look for their first victory in the series with the Sun Devils.
• Arizona State emerged victorious in the teams match last season 1-4 with Alejandro Jacome collecting the Shockers lone point.
• The teams have met two other times before. The Shockers were defeated by the Sun Devils at the 2021 NCAA Men's Tennis Championships 3-4 in Fort Worth, Texas. The other meeting came during the 2004 season where the Shockers were defeated 0-7.

GRAND CANYON

• The Grand Canyon Lopes are in their second year under the leadership of head coach Derek Siddiqui.
• The Lopes are coming off a season where they went 7-14 overall and 2-3 in WAC play.
• GCU's roster is similar to the Shockers, with seven total players and five returners from last season, highlighted by last year's team singles wins leaders Alfred Almasi (8) and Jonathan Da Sliva (7).
• GCU sophomore Paolo Rosati collected the lone point for the Lopes at #5 singles in their 1-6 loss to Wichita State last season.

NORTHERN ARIZONA

• The Northern Arizona Lumberjacks are in their sixth year under head coach Maciej Bogusz.
• The Lumberjacks enter 2024 fresh off a 2023 campaign that saw them finish 22-3 including wins over two ranked opponents in #66 Gonzaga and #68 Air Force and saw their season end in the Big Sky Conference Championship Match with a 3-4 defeat against Idaho.
• The Lumberjacks were ranked #66 in the ITA's final top-75 poll of the season.

ARIZONA STATE

• The Shockers round out their trip to Arizona with a battle against the Sun Devils of Arizona State.
• The Sun Devils are led by former South Florida Head Coach Matt Hill who is in his sixth season leading the Arizona State program.
• Under Hill, the Sun Devils have made three NCAA Regionals appearances posting 14 or more wins in four of his six years at the helm.
• The Sun Devils are coming a season where they finished 14-12, going 2-6 in PAC-12 action, and receiving an NCAA Regionals bid.
• Arizona State ended last year ranked #40 in the final ITA top-75 Poll.

The Shockers will get a week off before hitting the road again, this time traveling to Lubbock, Texas to challenge the Texas Tech Red Raiders on January 20 at 12:00 PM CT.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Triumph Over Grand Canyon in Season Opener

https://redstate.com/videos/2024/01/12/the-army-has-a-recruitment-problem-especially-among-white-men-n2168628

In spite of being delayed by weather, the Wichita State men's tennis team picked up a confident 5-2 win over the Lopes of Grand Canyon in the team's season opener.

"It's always great to start the season with a win," Glavin said. "I'm very proud of the fight the team showed today."

"We started off a little slow in both doubles and singles, but we were able to turn around some matches and come up with some good wins to start off the season strong," Glavin said.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Drop Friday Doubleheader to Northern Arizona, Arizona State

https://goshockers.com/news/2024/1/12/mens-tennis-shockers-drop-friday-doubleheader-to-northern-arizona-arizona-state.aspx

Northern Arizona (1-1) had a strong showing in doubles, snagging the point with victories on courts two and three.

The Lumberjacks claimed a victory at court six singles to extend their advantage to 2-0.

A defeat of Marcelo Sepulveda on court four increased the Lumberjacks lead further to 3-0 and shortly after, a win over Misha Kvantaliani at court No. 2 would end the match 4-0 in favor of the Lumberjacks.

Results: https://goshockers.com/documents/202...hitaState_.pdf

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In their second match of the day, Arizona State (2-0) jumped on the Shockers early by taking the doubles point with wins at courts one and two.

The Sun Devils took an early 2-0 match lead after Alejandro Jacome was retired by injury at No. 1 singles.

ASU wrapped up the 4-0 win with defeats of Kvantaliani at court two and Vanja Hodzic at court three.

Arizona State 4, Wichita State 0
Singles competition
1. Bor Artnak (ASU) def. Alejandro Jacome (WICH) 4-1 with a win by retirement (injury)
2. Max McKennon (ASU) def. Misha Kvantaliani (WICH) 6-1, 6-2
3. Martin Vergara Del Puerto (ASU) def. Vanja Hodzic (WICH) 6-2, 6-2
4. Jacob Bullard (ASU) vs. Marcelo Sepulveda (WICH) 6-4, 2-1, unfinished
5. Roi Ginat (ASU) def Luke Bracks (WICH) 6-1, 4-2, unfinished
6. Nicola Cigna (ASU) vs. Richey King (WICH) 6-1, 4-3, unfinished

Doubles competition
1. Murphy Cassone/Martin Vergara (ASU) vs. Vanja Hodzic/Misha Kvantaliani (NAU) 6-2
2. Bor Artnak/Max McKennon (ASU) def. Luke Bracks/Marcelo Sepulveda (ASU) 6-0
3. Constantinos Koshis/Jacob Bullard (ASU) vs. Richey King/Alejandro Jacome (NAU) 5-3 (unfinished)
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (1,2,3)

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Hopefully, Alejandro Jacome's injury is not too serious.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Clipped by Texas Tech

The Shocks fall to Texas Tech 5-2 losing the doubles point and winning the #3 and #4 singles. The Shocker generally pretty competitive. Overall Tech won 90 games to 85 for the Shocks.