GENEVA, NY – It was a solid day of opening action for the Vassar College men's tennis team, who took to the courts at Hobart College for day 1 of the 2021 ITA Northeast Regional Championships. The Brewers saw three victories on the day, all by the contribution of sophomore Benjamin Almquist.

Almquist opened singles action with a 6-2, 6-2 victory against Hobart's Kaan Ayman. He followed that up in the next round with a 7-6, 6-2 victory over Skidmore's Alper Kulturel. Almquist moves on to Saturday's Round of 16 where he will face RPI's Aidan Drover-Mattinen, who is the top-seed in this year's tournament.

In the opening singles round, the Brewers also had several other competitors in action. Rookie James Balon faced-off against Skidmore's Zachary Portnoy, shouldering a 6-4, 6-0 loss. Senior Mihajlo Ivanovic took on NYU's Alex Yang, suffering a 6-2, 6-2 defeat.

Sophomore Arun Guruswamy fell by a 6-4, 6-1 margin to Hobart's Harry Lyu, while sophomore Nihal Kothari lost to St. Lawrence's Nathan Turtledove, 6-4, 6-1. Wrapping up the opening round of action was sophomore Jay Wong, who bested Nazareth's Dominic Vito to advance to the second round.

In addition to Almquist's second round match, the Brewers saw Wong take on RPI's Igor Visnevskij, falling by a 6-3, 6-4 decision.

First round doubles was up next as Almquist paired with rookie Arnav Agostinho for an 8-2 win over St. John Fisher's Cameron Campbell and Sean Danahy. Guruswamy and Ivanovic then bested RIT's duo of Christian Berko and Brennan Bull by an 8-2 score. Vassar's Wong and senior Mathew Yee suffered a tough 8-1 loss to Skidmore's Alper Kulturel and Noah Williamson.

In the second round, Guruswamy and Ivanovic fell to RPI's Eddie Wu and Abraham Yohannes, 8-1, while Almquist and Agostinho suffered a tough 8-6 loss to Union's Aidan O'Brien and Nick Weitzman.

Action at the ITA's continues on Saturday at 9am.