The Bona Venture

Issue date: 10/9/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Becky McKeown/The Bona Venture Senior Diego Valdenegro will participate in his final collegiate tennis event this weekend at the ITA Regional Champions.

The men's and women's tennis teams continued their fall seasons with tournaments last weekend.

The men were at the Yale Invite and now prepare for this weekend's ITA Regional Championships in Hanover, N.H.

The first day of the Yale Invite went deep into the night, as bad weather forced most of the action indoors. Coach Michael Bates said the change of location didn't hinder his team.

"We got there at eight in the morning and didn't get back until midnight," he said. "We're used to playing indoors, though, so it wasn't a big change for us."

The fall season is heavy on individual play, preparing each member for the team season that begins in the spring. Bates said he's looking to see who has good chemistry so the team is closely knit.

"We look to see who can play doubles together and who our better combinations are," he said. "We got a good idea through these tournaments, and it's to get the team to bond during these trips."

Bates said his team's play has improved since the beginning of this season.

"We're all playing better from where we started in the fall," he said.

Weather caused the B flight final to be canceled, where junior Mikhail Sudakov was to battle Princeton's Matt Siow.

"The rain delay didn't allow us to finish, but he had a couple of good wins there," Bates said. Sudakov defeated Yale's Daniel Hoffman, 6-4, 6-2 in the first round and John Lucero of Army in the second round, 6-1, 3-6, before taking down Erik Blumenkranz, also of Yale, 4-6, 7-5, in the semifinal.

While Bates wasn't disappointed with his team, he singled out Sudakov as his star of the invite.

"Everyone did OK. No one did great," he said. "No one stood out as much as Mikhail did."

The ITA regional tournament is the last tournament of the fall season.

"It's the big tournament of the season," Bates said. "It's everyone in our region, so it's about 36 schools … 120 players in the tournament all in one large bracket."

Bates says his players are capable of playing with the top players in the region.

"I'm just looking for improvement from last weekend. It doesn't matter who we're playing against. We just go out and fight hard, and we have the mental attitude that we can do it."

Continued...

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