By Pat Gainor, Staff Writer

Xavier men’s tennis  kicked off the 2023 fall season by collecting seven wins in the Dayton Tournament last weekend.

The fall season for men’s and women’s tennis consists of participation in three invitational blind dual-format tournaments, where members of two universities are paired off for singles matches before being blindly paired up for doubles to conclude the match set. 

Last Friday and Saturday, Xavier faced off against Dayton, Ball State and Northern Kentucky University, with the Muskies collecting a singles and doubles victory over the Flyers, two singles and a doubles victory against the Cardinals and two singles wins against the Norse.

Xavier entered the season retaining many of their standout players, notably junior Georgia native Marco Pennelli, who led the team in personal wins with 13, and senior Colombian native Jorge Santamaria, who finished an excellent 2022-23 campaign with an 8-2 record. Also returning is senior Swede Pascal Mosberger, who won five of his final seven matches to finish with a 7-3 record.

However, all throughout the tournament last weekend, the standout player on the court was Kyle Totorica, a sophomore from San Antonio, Texas. Totorica was a five-star recruit who signed with Xavier over the Fall 2021 signing period, and was ranked as a top-35 player national player and top-five in the state of Texas during his time at Reagan High School. He also won the 2018 Texas Grand Slam and was named the San Antonio Express Player of the Year.

Totorica led the Muskies in wins to kick off his sophomore season as he defeated the Flyers’ Eric Perkowski (6-4, 3-6, 10-6) in singles before pairing up with freshman Texas native Cristian Gonzalez to down Matt DeMarco and Ronit Hiryur with a 6-4 win. Totorica and Gonzalez would continue their success against Ball State, with the former easily disposing of Sajin Smith (6-2, 6-0) and the latter topping Drew Hayward (6-3, 6-2).

In doubles, Pennelli and Santamaria joined forces to edge out Mason Tran and Parrish Simmons of Ball State in a 7-5 victory, Xavier’s second doubles win of the tournament.

Closing out the tournament, Pascal Mosberger notched his first win of the fall season as he took down Brandon Ponomarew of Northern Kentucky University (4-6, 6-3, 1-0). Freshman Alex Adamec, a top-50 recruit hailing from Jacksonville that Xavier landed last year, collected his first  singlesvictory in silver and navy  as he bested NKU’s Santiago Casamayor (6-4, 6-2).

Fall season tournaments do not count for official records or conference rankings. Xavier will play two more tournaments throughout the fall season before going on break for the winter. The Musketeers will begin playing officially in mid-to-late January as they look to build on last season’s 12-9 record and #6 seed in the Big East Tournament.

Xavier heads up north to steel country next weekend to participate in the Youngstown Invitational. They will then conclude fall season play on Oct. 15th, with select members of the team participating in the International Tennis Association Ohio-Valley Regional, hosted this year at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.