UA Doubles Teams Advance to Finals

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Blake Strode and Colin Mascall advanced to the finals of the doubles competition at the Midland Invitational. The Razorback duo will be looking to capture the tournament’s doubles title for the second consecutive year. At the South Carolina Invitational, Connor Smith and Drew Sosebee will play for the doubles title of the B-2 flight.

Strode and Mascall opened Saturday’s action in Midland with a 8-4 semifinal win over Arkansas teammate Tyler Tarnasky and his partner Brad Williams from Texas A&M. In Sunday’s final, Strode and Mascall will take on Arizona’s Bruno Alcala and Claudio Christen.

In South Carolina, Smith and Sosebee defeated Carlos Benatzky and T.C. Valle, 8-3, in the semifinals. Next up, Smith and Sosebee will face Coastal Carolina’s Omar El Bouskouir and Joseph Withers for the section championship.

Two other Razorbacks, Chris Nott and Jorge Villanueva, will look to advance in their respective consolation brackets. In the A-2 draw, Nott will play Guilherme Fonseca from Lander and in B-2 action, Villanueva will take on Belmont’s Ignacio Gesto. Both matches are semifinals.

In the main draw, three Arkansas netters advanced to the quarterfinals in South Carolina. In the A-1 bracket, Lebedev defeated South Carolina’s Pedro Campos, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, in the round of 16 before falling to Mahmoud Hamed of South Florida, 7-6, 6-0, in the quarterfinals.

Nick Spinazze lost to South Carolina-Upstate’s Jack Roux, 0-6, 6-1, 6-2, in an A/B quarterfinal match up. Smith won his first match of the day with a 6-2, 6-3 score over Alex Wetherell from UNC-Wilmington in B-2 singles. He then lost to Jose Augusta Gaspar, 6-3, 6-2.

Semifinal action is set to begin Sunday morning with play continuing throughout the day. Log on to www.hogwired.com for complete results from the Midland and South Carolina tournaments.