Complete Results

RIVER FOREST, Ill. – The University of Detroit Mercy men's tennis team kicked off the fall season with a strong showing at the River Forest Collegiate Invitational last weekend at the River Forest Tennis Club in Illinois.
 
The three-day clay-court tournament from Friday through Sunday featured teams from all across the region. Programs competing included: Belmont, DePaul, Detroit, Morehead State, Northern Illinois, South Dakota State, Illinois-Chicago, Western Michigan and Xavier.
 
The Titans went 16-11 in singles, collectively, with seven of nine players posting winning singles records. Detroit went 5-7 in doubles, falling in a few closely contested matches.
 
"The tournament was a very encouraging start to our season," said first-year head coach Aaron Paajanen. "It was a great opportunity to see our guys play against some good teams. It was the first time I've seen them play, so I'm very happy with our performance."
 
The freshmen were exceptional in their debut, with all three newcomers finishing with a winning singles record and two of the three going 3-0.
 
"The freshmen were one of the biggest highlights of the tournament," Paajanened continued. "To start their collegiate careers in the way that they did – I'm very proud of the way they competed."
 
Nicholas Solarewicz, playing in the C-Flight, clawed out a narrow victory in his opener and backed it up with a second round win. Solarewicz cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 triumph in his final singles match.
 
Adam Zychowicz dominated the D-Flight with three wins in the minimum amount of six sets.
 
Griffin Mertz capped the class with a 2-1 showing out of the C-Flight. Mertz fell in a tight second match, before bouncing back with a strong 6-2, 6-3 win in his finale.
 
The upperclassmen got in on the action too, holding their own against quality teams out of the top flights.
 
Juniors Patryk Koscielski and Nathan Ponton each went 2-1 in the singles A-Flight, while senior Rafael Orantes added a 2-1 clip out of the B-Flight and Chance Conley was 2-1 in the C-Flight.
 
In doubles, the duo of Koscielski and Ponton went 2-1 in the A-Flight and Mertz and Zychowicz also posted a 2-1 record out of the C-Flight to lead the Titans.
 
Detroit returns to action Sept. 26 in the Red and White Scrimmage from the UDM campus.