By: Adam Purvis ~Staff Writer~

Xavier’s men’s and women’s tennis teams traveled to their first tournaments of the season this past weekend. The men’s team took a trip to River Forest, Ill. to compete against Northern Illinois, DePaul, Illinois at Chicago, Butler, Detroit Mercy, Morehead State and Western Michigan, among others.

The women’s team traveled to Oxford to participate in the Miami Invitational against Lipscomb, Butler and Miami (Ohio). The men’s team played strong in the first rounds of the tournament on Sept. 11.

Junior Jeremy Schneider, senior Zach Mueck, sophomore Arthur Stefani, sophomore Gabriel Chaves Araujo and freshman Jack Dykema won their first round matches in the singles tournament.

In the doubles tournament, the teams of Mueck and Schneider, Stefani and Araujo and Dykema and Jonny Higham from South Dakota State won their first two rounds of the day as well. Day two would not go as well for the team, however. Each Musketeer lost his round two match of the singles tournament, while the team of Higham and Dykema was the only team to win in round three of the doubles and come out on top of Flight D.

The Musketeers would bounce back on day three and have Mueck, Araujo and Dykema win their consolation brackets in Flights A,B and C, respectively.

In day one of the women’s invitational, only one round of the singles competition and two rounds of the doubles were completed due to weather, so Xavier and Miami matches were suspended until 9 a.m. Sunday. In the doubles competitions, the teams of sophomore Amina Ismail and junior Sydney Liggins, senior Alex Brinker and junior Christina Di Lorenzo and sophomore Lauren Ghidotti and freshman Zoe Manion won their matches against both Butler and Lipscomb. The team of Ismail and Liggins would be the only team to defeat Miami in the doubles competition.

In the singles competition, Xavier won five of its six matches against Lipscomb with Liggins, Brinker, Di Lorenzo, Ghidotti and senior Megan Morris chalking up wins for the team. After the suspension of matches, the Musketeers would only take two wins from Miami with Liggins and Di Lorenzo again winning their matches.

To end the singles competition, the Musketeers swept all six of their matches against Butler before heading home. Both teams continue play Sept. 18, with both teams competing in the Dayton/NKU Invitational, which is one of four tournaments that each team will participate in this fall and the only that both teams will participate in together.