The Valparaiso University men’s tennis team saw four players at Duke’s James Bonk Invite in Cary, N.C. combine for six singles wins out of eight matches on Saturday, while at home in the Valpo Fall Invitational, the Crusaders claimed one doubles and two singles titles.

How It Happened – Duke

• Seniors Dave Bacalla (Skokie, Ill./Niles North) and Charlie Emhardt (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) will meet in the consolation final of the Black singles bracket after each won a pair of matches Saturday. Bacalla earned straight-set wins over Florida’s Stephen Madonia (6-4, 6-0) and Radford’s Samuel Taylor (6-4, 6-4), while Emhardt earned a 6-3, 6-1 win over Duke’s Andrew DeJoy and then battled to a 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 victory versus Elon’s Chris Humphreys.
• Sophomore Chad Kissell (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) earned a spot in the fifth-place match in the White singles bracket. After a tough three-set loss in his Saturday opener, Kissell bounced back with a 6-4, 7-6(6) win over Charlotte’s Sam Rice.
• Senior Jeffrey Schorsch (Perrysburg, Ohio/Perrysburg) recorded a win in the back draw of the Blue singles bracket.
• Emhardt and Schorsch teamed up for an 8-4 victory over a duo from Charlotte to claim third place in the White doubles bracket.

How It Happened – Valpo

• The Crusaders had a pair of players face off in the finals of both the A and the B singles brackets on Saturday.
• Freshman Brandon Ancona (Belvidere, Ill./Rockford Christian) advanced to the A singles final with a 6-3, 5-7, 10-8 win over WashU’s Johnny Wu, while senior Kyle Dunn (Fond du Lac, Wis./Fond du Lac) rallied for a 1-6, 6-2, 10-8 victory over Iowa’s Jason Kerst. Dunn claimed the A singles bracket title with a 4-6, 6-3, 10-6 victory against Ancona.
• Junior Garrett Gardner (Poland, Ohio/Poland) downed freshman Daniel Langston (Ponca City, Okla./Ponca City) in the B singles final, 6-1, 6-1. Gardner advanced to the title match by virtue of a 7-5, 6-3 victory against WashU’s Jason Haugen, while Langston took down WashU’s Bernardo Neves in his semifinal, 6-0, 3-6, 10-4.
• Freshman Franklin Brozovich (Fort Gratiot, Mich./Port Huron Northern) advanced to the C singles championship with a 7-6(3), 7-6(6) win against Radha Vishnu of WashU before falling in the title match.
• Before facing off in the A singles championship, Dunn and Ancona combined to take down an Iowa duo, 6-2, to earn the A doubles title. Gardner and Langston won the consolation final in the same bracket with a 6-3 victory over a WashU doubles team.
• Pecyna and Brozovich closed out play in B doubles with a 6-2 win over a duo from Purdue in the bracket’s third-place match.

Next Up

The quartet of Crusaders competing at Duke will close out the James Bonk Invite on Sunday as singles action wraps up.