Sisko comes out on top at the MAC Indoor Invite on Sunday

The Toledo men’s tennis team put on a dominant performance this weekend in the Mid-Amercian Conference Indoor Invite in Kalamzoo, Mich.

The team ended with a championship performance on Sunday from reigning MAC Player of the Year, junior Stepan Sisko.

“A lot of our guys showed mental toughness and resilience this weekend,” said Head Coach Al Wermer. “Especially Stepan — everyone wanted to take him out and he responded well.”

Sisko took home the Flight A singles title with three straight match victories.

“Winning didn’t really show anything,” Sisko said. “I need to be more focused and practice more tennis.”

In his first round, Sisko battled in a hard-fought, three-set match (6-7, 7-6, 10-7) versus Binghamton’s Eliott Hureau.

“I got lucky,” Sisko said. “It was match point and I just hit a lucky shot.”

He then went on to defeat Western Michigan’s Maik Steiner in two sets in the semi-finals round before another three-set match — this time verses Buffalo’s Amat Hromic — to take home the Championship.

In addition to singles play, Sisko was paired with sophomore Omar Espinosa in doubles play. The two lost in the semi-finals round in a 6-4 match against a duo from WMU.

Espinosa lost his opening match in the first round of Flight B Singles (7-5, 7-6, 9-7) to WMU’s Matt Hamilton but regrouped well to win the consolation bracket.

“I wanted to improve every match and every round,” Espinosa said. “This was just another opportunity to improve and continue to do my best.”

After losing to Western Michigan’s Matt Hamilton, Espinosa went on to defeat Ludovico Cestarollo from Binghamton in a three-set match (6-3, 5-7, 15-13) and won the championship match (6-1, 6-4) against Buffalo’s Ethan Nittolo.

“I was more aggressive and more positive with every passing match,” Espinosa said.

Freshmen Luka Vitosevic dominated Conner Anderson from Ball State in two-sets (6-1, 6-1) in his first round win of the Flight C singles. Vitosevic lost his second match in the semi-finals to Western Michigan’s Andrew Cahn.

Vitosevic went on to win the consolation bracket, defeating Western Michigan’s Daniel Loebel to take home third place.

Reid Teatsort battled Ball State’s Marko Guzina in a three-set victory (7-5, 0-6, 10-8) in the opening round of Flight E singles play.

Teatsort dropped his next match in two sets to Akhil Mehta from Buffalo.

He finished the tournament with a third-place victory over Northern Illinois’ Erich Schuette in two sets.

“It’s motivating to have no other non-conference teams here,” Wermer said. “There is more of an edge at this conference-only tournament rather than at others.”

The Rockets finish their fall season on Friday-Sunday, Nov. 6-8 at the USTA Futures tournament in Niceville, Fla.