Location: Lynchburg, Va

The Short Story: VCU Men's Tennis showed out at the ITA Men's Atlantic Regional Tournament held at Liberty University this past week. The Rams made it all the way to the final matches of both the Open Singles Gold Draw and Open Doubles Gold Draw. 

Opening Serve:

• Hamza El Amine, German Samofalov, Romain Gales, Matisse Bobichon, and Mathis Bondaz made the short trip to Lynchburg to represent VCU
• El Amine competed in the Open Singles Silver Draw, making it all the way to the Round of 16 before withdrawing due to injury
• Romain Gales and German Samofalov each competed in the Gold Draw in singles and fell in the Round of 32
• Gales and Samofalov competed in the Gold Draw for Open Doubles and fell in the Round of 16
• Matisse Bobichon and Mathis Bondaz each had a strong performance in the Open Singles Gold Draw
• Bobichon made it all the way to the semifinals while Bondaz competed in the final
• Bobichon and Bondaz also powered through to the final of the Open Doubles Gold Draw

Results:

10.12
El Amine def. Tim Zelikovsky (Bucknell) 6-1, 6-0

10.13
El Amine def. Deja Thomas-Smith (Liberty) 7-5, 6-4
El Amine fell to Aryan Salih 7-5, 5-7

10.14
Bobichon def. Connor Henry Van Schalkwyk (ODU) 6-1, 6-4
Gales fell Jeffrey Von Der Schulenburg (UVA) 4-7, 6-3, 2-6
Bondaz def. Zambian Moledine (Georgetown) 3-6, 6-1
Samofalov fell to Yanis Moundir (ODU) 6-3, 0-6, 2-6

Bondaz/Bobichon def. Amar Tahirovic and Brendan McDonald (Bucknell) 8-4
Gales/Samofalov def. Michael Shepard and Alex Ix 8-2

10.15
Bondaz def. Edoardo Graziani 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
Bobichon def. Karol Malirz 6-3, 6-1
Bondaz def. Alexander Kiefer (withdraw)
Bobichon def. Loren Byers 6-2, 9-7

Gales/Samofalov def. Mans Dahlberg and Dylan Dietrich 8-5
Bobichon/Bondaz def. Edoardo Graziani and James Hopper 8-6
Bobichon/Bondaz def. Euan Mackenzie and Tobey Lock 8-3
Gales/Samofalov fell to Codie Schalk Van Schalkwyk and Connor Henry Van Schalkwyk 8-7, 7-2

10.16
Bondaz def. Jeffrey Van Schulenburg 6-4, 6-3
Bobichon fell to Ryan Fishback 7-5, 6-4

Bobichon/Bondaz advance to Doubles final on withdraw
Bobichon/Bondaz fell to Jakob Cardonau and Cosme Rolland de Ravel 6-2, 6-4

Bondaz fell to Ryan Fishback, 7-4, 6-3