TOPEKA, Kan. — The color purple was good to the Colorado Mesa men's tennis team Friday.
Both Mavericks in the Purple draw of the Washburn Invitational claimed spots in today's championship match.
The tournament, featuring six NCAA Division II teams and two nationally ranked junior college squads, is divided into seven singles draws and one open doubles draw.
Emil Hultman (5-0 this fall) faces teammate Romain Payan (4-1) this morning for the championship of their bracket after both won their first two matches. Hultman claimed a 6-3, 6-1 victory against Andres Rodriguez of Northwest Missouri State, then defeated Federico Ivan Riolo of Southwest Baptist 6-2, 4-0 after Riolo was forced to retire with an injury.
Payan won a pair of third-set tiebreakers to reach the championship match, first holding off Yoshinobu Natastsuji of Washburn University 4-6, 6-1, 10-6. He then outlasted Hugo Alvarez Gonzales of Northwest Missouri State 3-6, 6-1, 10-7 to reach the title match.
Luke Burriesci (3-2) is in line for the title in the Pink draw, which is a four-man round-robin, winning his first two matches, and Gavin Hutter (4-1) will play for third place in the Orange bracket.
Burriesci, a sophomore who played only a handful of matches last season, rattled off two straight-set victories, dropping only three total games, to reach Saturday's final match against Pratt's Thiofhi Tshivhase, who is also 2-0.
Hutter, a sophomore from Colorado Springs who transferred to CMU from Division III Bethel (Minn.) this season, won his first-round match 6-1, 6-0 against Diogo Borges of Seward CC before dropping a tough third-set tiebreaker against Gage Foltz of Northwest Missouri State, 6-1, 1-6, 11-9, in the semifinals.
He'll play Antonin Leborne of Northwest Missouri on Saturday for third place.
Henry Scheck (3-2) is in Saturday's consolation championship match of the Blue bracket against Yuto Miyagawa of Washburn. Scheck lost his first-round match to Kenneth Rabinad Vila of Pratt (Kan.) Community College 6-2, 6-3. He received a walkover in the consolation semifinals when his opponent, Tommaso Cecchetti of Washburn, withdrew with an injury in the first round.
Diogo Manzano (2-3) went 0-2 on Friday in the Green draw and plays again Saturday against Sam Dinneen of Pratt.
William Leschig (2-2) lost his first-round match in the Orange draw against Graham Faris of Washburn 6-1, 3-6, 10-8, but bounced back in the consolation round. He defeated Xavier Dilenga of Seward 4-1, 4-0 in the "fast four" backdraw format to reach the consolation championship Saturday against Pratt's Vincent Gazzini.
Jamison Pfingston (0-1) was forced to withdraw in his first-round match of the Yellow draw with an injury.
The Mavericks went 2-2 in doubles, with Scheck and Leschig claiming an 8-6 win over Pavel Vysotin and Andrew Rodriguez of Northwest Missouri, and Pfingston and Payan defeating Alex Crawford and Harrison Clark of Southwest Baptist 8-1.
Manzano and Hultman lost their first-round match 8-4 and Hutter and Burriesci fell 8-2.
Doubles play begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, followed by the resumption of singles competition.
