WALLA WALLA, Wash. - Whitman College's Matt Solomon and Etienne Moshevich are slated for "play-in" matches Wednesday morning as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's National Small College Championships get underway at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center in Mobile, Ala.
Solomon, a sophomore, battles Oliver Gaines, a senior at Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas), in the singles play-in match at 10 a.m. (Central daylight time). After that match and a brief break, Solomon and Moshevich, a Missionary freshman, play Trinity freshmen Cory Kowal and Bobby Cocanougher in the doubles play-in match.
Solomon and Moshevich advanced to this week's tournament by winning the ITA's Northwest Region tournament, held last month in McMinnville, Ore. Solomon captured the regional singles title by beating freshman teammate Chris Bailey, and Solomon/Moshevich claimed the doubles title by downing Whitman sophomores Nadeem Kassam and Jake Cappel.
Trinity's three players qualified for Wednesday's play-in matches by winning the ITA's Southwest Regional, held last month at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas.
If Solomon wins his singles play-in match Wednesday, he faces Andy Bryan, a senior at Adolphus Gustavus College (Saint Peter, Minn.) in a singles quarterfinal match at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.
If Solomon and Moshevich advance past their play-in match, they play in a doubles quarterfinal match at 2:30 p.m. Thursday. Their opponents would be Filip Marinkovic and Andrew Thomson, a senior and sophomore, respectively, at Vermont's Middlebury College.
This marks the second consecutive year that Solomon has played at the ITA's national fall championships. A year ago, Solomon and Kassam lost a close decision in doubles to Eric White and Daniel Quiones, two senios at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor who then advanced to the doubles championship match before losing.
Whitman's Phalkun Mam, who graduated last spring, also competed at last fall's tournament, winning his play-in match and placing fifth overall.