Tiger tennis finishes fall season strong

The Ouachita men’s tennis team wrapped up their fall campaign on Saturday, Oct. 31 at the Apache Invitational hosted by Tyler Junior College at the JoAnn Medlock Murphy Tennis Center.

The tournament field of singles consisted of five flights and 80 players and in doubles there were two draws of 40 teams. Ouachita Junior Jan Plewinski won the first flight of singles over TJC sophomore Pier Piercianni 6-2, 6-1. Earlier in the day Plewinski partnered with teammate Till Heilshorn to win the first flight of doubles over Mick Plum and Jordan Rozenfeld of Collin County.

Competing in the second flight were sophomores Jean Charles Diame and Peirre Tafelski. After winning his first match, Diame retired with an injury, while Tafelski was defeated in his second round match. After winning two rounds in the doubles first flight, Tafelski and Diame had to retire to due Diam’s injury.

Daniel Moser and Cristian Ceparu both dropped their first round matches in the third flight but came back to win their next two. They then teamed together for doubles and finished winning three matches and losing one.

Earlier in the season Till Heilshorn and Jan Pelwinski competed in ITF futures events in Austin and Fort Worth, Texas.

In Austin Till won three qualifying matches and advanced to the main draw. In his next match he lost a close match to Dennis Zikovic (USA) 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(6). Jan won his first round but lost his second round to Matt Kuzdub (Canada).

The next week in Fort Worth Jan made it to the final round of qualifying with two wins and a loss to Jordan Cox (USA) 6-4, 6-4. Till lost in the first round.

September 11-13 saw the Tigers competing in the Rajin Cajun Collegiate Invitational on the campus of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. On the first day of play everyone advanced in the draw winning their matches. Due to weather, the remaining two days were canceled.

“The matches we play in the fall are a bit more relaxed,” Head Coach Craig Ward said. “We also don’t play nearly as much. It gives the guys an opportunity to be like normal students. Last spring was very demanding on all of us. Even though we had a lot of success we lacked experience. We have five back from last years team and I expect experience will be one of our strengths.”