Washburn’s men’s and women’s tennis teams competed in the MSU Fall Invitational in Wichita Falls, Texas this past weekend. They faced tough players from universities that they don’t normally see in competition. Logan Morrissey defeated Bianca Duff of Midwestern State University in the semi-finals of the women’s number one singles consolation round. She pulled off the win after a long supertiebreaker that ended at 17-15. She then met fellow Washburn player, Alexis Czapinski in the consolation finals. Alejandro Valarezo lost a close match to Chase Bartlett of St. Edward’s University, ending in a10-12 tiebreaker. He came back to win the consolation round in men’s number one singles. Most of his matches were won under the pressure of super tiebreakers. Chase Brill defeated Adolfo Arroyo of Tyler Junior College in the semifinals of the men’s number three singles. Lance Lysaught, Washburn’s head tennis coach, says that Tyler Junior College always brings tough competition.

“The Tyler Junior College guys are the number one team in the nation,” Lysaught said. “They don’t lose very often. As a team, the men took three out of five matches from them.” 

Chase Brill and Bradley Eindenmueller went on to meet each other in the finals round and were declared co-champions of the men’s number three singles. Blake Hunter and Alejandro Valarezo faired extremely well in the men’s

 number one doubles.They won the tournament and are currently undefeated.

“Overall, great tournament for the guys, they really showed a lot of fight on Saturday,” saidLysaught. “I believe they won five or six super tiebreakers after 

losing the first set. They cameback and won those matches.” 

The tennis teams will compete in the ITA        

Central Regional in Springfield this weekend. Afterward, they will begin training for the spring season. They will take a short break from tennis in order to focus on fitness during the winter months.

“We definitely do a lot more weight lifting and it’s a lot more intense,” said Madison Lysaught, a sophomore on the women’s team. “We’re trying to build up our strength and endurance by doingthe stuff that we can’t always do while we’re in season because we’re trying to save it for matches.” 

The players will do everything they can to prepare for the spring season.

“The goal is always to try to win the conference,” said Lance Lysaught. “It’s just such a deep, difficult conference to win, but that’s the goal. Every year we feel like we’ve been improving.We have a lot of talented players, they’ve been working very hard and that’s what we’re going to go after.”