CACYE, S.C. – Weather played a factor in the second day of the BIG EAST Tennis Championship presented by Jeep at the Cayce Tennis and Fitness Center in Cayce, S.C. Three men’s quarterfinal matches were able to finish before heavy rain moved in and suspended play for the remainder of the day.
Top-seeded St. John’s had a strong comeback effort in singles play after No. 8 Xavier claimed the doubles point. The Red Storm went on to win 4-1. No. 2 seed Butler was victorious against No. 7 Villanova, 4-2, while No. 3 Marquette downed No. 6 Georgetown, 4-1. The fourth quarterfinal match between No. 4 DePaul and No. 5 Creighton was suspended with the Blue Demons up 3-1, which will resume on Saturday at 9 a.m. St. John’s will take on the winner of DePaul and Creighton, while Butler and Marquette face off in the men’s semifinals on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET.
Two women’s matches were also suspended on Friday between No. 1 Xavier and No. 8 Georgetown, along with No. 2 DePaul and No. 7 Creighton. The Musketeers were able to grab the doubles point before rain set in, but the Blue Demons and Bluejays were halted before a point was decided. Both matches will resume on Saturday at 9 a.m. First serve for the other two quarterfinal matches between No. 3 Marquette and No. 6 Villanova, along with No. 4 St. John’s and No. 5 Seton Hall are set for 12:30 p.m.
The first men’s match on Friday between St. John’s and Xavier started an hour early at 8 a.m. to beat the rain, and the Musketeers jumped on the Red Storm for the doubles point. Xavier’s Brett Winters and Jack Dykema defeated Andrei Crapcenco and Udayan Bhakar 6-4 at No. 1, while on the No. 3 court, Michael Lee and Jan Vrba outdid Dusan Vukicevic and Alex Roszkowski, 7-6.
The men’s top seed was not to be outdone so quickly as the Johnnies responded by taking four singles matches to move onto the next round. Crapcenco clinched the match against Winters at the No. 1 spot, 6-3, 6-4. Alan Nunez Aguilera won 6-2, 6-3 versus Dykema at No. 2. Vukicevic topped Lee on the No. 4 court, 6-0, 6-3, while Ognjen Trejgut swept Trent Smith, 6-0, 6-0, on court No. 6.
Villanova stole two singles matches from Butler, but the Bulldogs did enough to seal the win and advance, starting by winning the doubles point. Michael Dickson and Adrian Mag defeated Stefan Suarez and Tommy Mulflur 6-3 at the No. 2 spot, while Thomas Brennan and Spencer Lang clinched the doubles point for Butler with a 7-5 win against Dylan Flanagan and Charlie Schuls at No. 3.
Lang took down Mulflur for the next point on court No. 6, 6-1, 6-3. Mason Dragos secured the win in the top singles spot against Suarez, 7-5, 6-3. Tommy Dodson collected a point for Villanova after he won 6-1, 7-6(4) against Aviv Ben Shabat at No. 3. The Wildcats closed in at 3-2 after Tyler Roth outdid Brennan in three sets at No. 2, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3. Michael Dickson clinched the match for the Bulldogs on the No. 5 court against Charlie Schuls, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
Marquette came out strong to take the doubles point versus Georgetown. Greg Anderson and Luis Heredia Gomez were victorious over Michael Chen and Charlie Sharton first, 6-2, on court No. 2. Alvaro Verdu and Brett Meyers defeated Rohan Kamdar and Connor Lee for the clincher at No. 1, 6-4.
Luke Ross was triumphant over Brandon Shanklin on court No. 6 for the lone Hoya point, 6-2, 7-6. At No. 4, Meyers took down Andrew Rozanov, 6-4, 6-1, while Anderson claimed the point at No. 5 in three sets versus Sharton, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1. Luke Smrek clinched the match for the Golden Eagles in comeback fashion at the No. 2 spot, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Saturday’s matches will begin at 9 a.m. with the resumption of the three suspended matches from Friday. You can find live stats for the men
here, and live stats for the women can be found
here.
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