IRVINE, Calif. - The University of Hawai`i men's tennis team began play today in the USTA/ITA Southwest Regional Tennis Championships at the Anteater Tennis Stadium and Anteater Recreation Center on the campus of UC Irvine.

 

Nearly 100 players from a dozen West Coast schools are competing in the five-day tournament. Eight Rainbow Warriors were in action on the opening day as singles play started.  

 

Seniors Dennis Lajola  and Jeremy Tweedt each earned first-round byes as seeded players. No. 11 Lajola easily won his first set of the tournament with a  6-2, 6-0 sweep of Jordan Kepler of Cal Poly. Lajola advanced to the round of 32 where he will face Clark Spinosa of San Diego on Friday.

 

No. 17 Tweedt also advanced to the round of 32 with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Hugh Clarke of Pepperdine. Tweedt will now face No. 10 seed Raymond Sarmiento of USC.

 

Freshman Jonathan Brooklyn also earned a singles win for UH. The native of England defeated Felix Macherez of UC Riverside, 6-2, 6-4. Brooklyn, however, was eliminated in the round of 64 by top seeded Daniel Nguyen of USC in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5.

 

Dmytro Kovalyov, Daniel Llarenas, Chris Meyer, David Schuster and Jared Spiker all fell in their opening-round matches and are now relegated to the consolation bracket which begins on Friday.

 

Tomorrow's doubles competition will have four teams representing Hawai'i as the duos of Lajola/Schuster, Llarenas/Spiker, Brooklyn/Tweedt and Kovalyov/Meyer will all compete.

 

Jonathan Brooklyn (UH) def. Felix Macherez (UCR) 6-2, 6-4

Shiva Sangwan (SDSU) def. Chris Meyer (UH) 6-4, 6-1

Max Ta Ba Truong (UCLA) def. Dmytro Kovalyov (UH) 6-4, 6-2

Stephen Stege (UCI) def. Daniel Llarenas (UH) 6-0, 6-3

Danil Simko (LMU) def. Daniel Schuster (UH) 6-7, 6-2, 6-1

Geoff Embry (UA) def. Jared Spiker (UH) 6-7, 6-0, 6-3

 

(1) Daniel Nguyen (USC) def. Jonathan Brooklyn 6-1, 7-5

(17) Jeremy Tweedt (UH) def. Hugh Clarke (PEP) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4

(11) Dennis Lajola (UH) def. Jordan Kepler (CP) 6-2, 6-0