Arkansas Tennis Completes Day One at South Carolina Midland Invitationals

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas tennis parted ways this weekend with Blake Strode and Colin Mascall competing in the Midland Invitational, in Midland, Texas, and the remaining Razorbacks traveling to Columbia, S.C. for the South Carolina Invitational.

Strode, the tournament’s No. 5 seed, defeated his first opponent of the day, Jonah Kane-West of Texas, 6-2, 6-4. In his second match of the day, he edged George Navas of Michigan, 6-7, 6-1, 6-4.

Colin Mascall lost his first match of the day, 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 to Matt Brown of Baylor, the tournament’s No. 3 seed.

Later in the evening, Strode and Mascall combined to play doubles and defeated Oivind Alver and David Kuczer of SMU, 8-3.

Play in Midland will continue on Sat., Oct. 14.

At the South Carolina Invitational, in the opening round of play, Dmitry Vlaskin topped Alejandro Portugal of Winthrop, 6-1, 6-3. Gabriel Mattos defeated Matt Jackman of Barton College, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. Branden Joost found a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Billy Simpson of Erskine.

Brian Yanulis fell to Danaiava Mavadunne of Francis Marion, 6-1, 6-4. Thiago Barbosa of Winthrop edged Arkansas’ Drew Sosebee, 7-5, 6-4. Braden Burks advanced to the next round of play when his opponent, Colin Van Der Hel of Troy, withdrew from the tournament.

In doubles play, Mattos and Vlaskin teamed up and fell to Robin Fernandes and Andre Moreira of UT-Arlington, 8-2. Joost and Yanulis were topped by Davis Pantovic and Alex Petropolous of Auburn-Montgomery, 8-4.

Play in Coulmbia will continue on Saturday. For complete results of the South Carolina Invitational, visit www.uscsports.com.