St. John's University Athletics
Lampa, Every Lead Red Storm At USTA Men's College Invitational
9/24/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Sept. 24, 2012
FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. - After a hot start to the fall season at the Farnsworth/Princeton Invitational last weekend, the St. John's men's tennis team continued its strong play on their home court, the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., for the USTA Men's College Invitational.
Senior Mike Lampa, who was one of a quartet of St. John's players to reach the semifinals of their respective singles brackets, had a tremendous tournament by reaching the finals of both the third singles flight and second doubles flight with classmate Valentin Mihai.
Lampa first bounced SMU's Evan Bechtel, 6-1, 6-2, and then went on to defeat Lorenzo Rossi of Marist, 6-4, 6-0, to reach the semifinals. The Ocean Township, N.J. native then defeated Harvard's Nicky Hu, 6-2, 7-6 (2), before losing to Hu's teammate Kelvin Lam in a hard fought final, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2.
In the second doubles flight, Lampa and Mihai toppled Farleigh Dickinson's Mark Hemy and Markus Sjoberg, 8-0, Army's Austin McCaison and Alex Van Vezler, 8-3, and Columbia's Dragos Ignat and Winston Lin, 8-5, before falling to Brown's Jacob Laser and Michael Riechmann in the final, 8-5.
Freshman Michael-John Every and sophomore Hugo Morth both represented St. John's in the semifinals of the "F" singles bracket with Every advancing past Peter Skvarka of Farleigh Dickinson, 6-2, 6-4, for a spot in the finals. Every eventually fell short in the title match where John Dube of Marist prevailed, 6-1, 6-3.
In the top singles flight, senior Vasko Mladenov ousted Xander Centenari of Dartmouth in the round of 16, 6-4, 6-4, and then deafeated Zack McCourt of Princeton in three sets. After dropping the first set of the semifinal to Yale's John Huang, Mladenov, who was the flight's top seed, came back to win the second set 7-5. Huang, the flight's fourth seed, went on to take a nail biting third set, 7-6 (4), and moved on to the finals.
The Red Storm continues its fall schedule next weekend on Oct. 5 when it travels across the East River to play in the annual Columbia Fall Classic at Columbia University.
To stay up to date with the St. John's men's tennis team, follow the squad on Twitter (@STJ_Tennis) and use the #stjtennis hashtag to join conversation.
Players Mentioned
