Chapel Hill, N.C. – The Furman men's tennis team got its fall season underway this past weekend participating at the Tom Chewning Invitational in Chapel Hill, N.C., which was hosted by North Carolina at the Chewning Tennis Center.
Furman was one of seven schools that competed in the three-day event along with North Carolina, Duke, N.C. State, Wake Forest, VCU, and N.C. Central.
The Paladins sent eight players to the Tom Chewning Invitational in
Walker Allen,
Cole Burnam,
Ben Cahill,
Leonardo Dal Boni,
Thomas Kennedy,
Connor Laymon,
Elijah Poritzky, and
Emil Westling.
The opening day on Friday saw Furman collect four singles wins from Allen, Burnam, Kennedy, and Laymon. Allen defeated Leo Garipey of N.C. Central 6-2, 1-6, 6-0 while Burnam, Kennedy, and Laymon all won in straight sets. Burnam topped Lucas Artigas of N.C. Central 6-2, 6-1, Kennedy won 6-3, 6-4 over North Carolina's Dennis Perumov, and Laymon earned a 6-1, 6-4 triumph against Neiman Sneed of N.C. Central.
In Friday's doubles action, the Paladins received three victories from the combinations of Allen/Laymon, Poritzky/Kennedy, and Westling/Cahill. Allen/Laymon picked up a 6-4 win against Artigas and Shaka Cristellotti of N.C. Central, Poritzky/Kennedy won 6-1 against N.C. Central's team of Sneed and Naresh Bharathy, and Westling/Cahill tallied a 6-4 victory over Hugo Vega and Kareen Hakim of N.C. Central.
Due to inclement weather, the final two days of competition were played indoors.
Furman registered a total of three wins on Saturday with two coming in singles action and one in doubles. Poritzky compiled a straight set win against N.C. Central's Oliver Saarinen 6-3, 6-3, and Burnam won 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 against Hakim. In doubles, the tandem of Allen/Laymon compiled a 7-6(3) victory versus Saarinen and Garipey.
The Paladins closed out play on Sunday with a pair of singles victories from Allen and Poritzky. Poritzky won in straight sets 7-6(4), 6-3 against Peter Murphy of North Carolina, and Allen defeated Hakim 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 7-5.
Furman is back in action September 30-October 8 when it heads to Tulsa, Okla. for the ITA All-American Championships.
