Eastern Competes Well in Seattle

Kyle Koetje, Fernando Mussolini, Kevin Anderson and Chad Henninger perform well as Eagles wrap-up fall tennis schedule

The Eastern Washington University men's tennis team wrapped up is fall schedule by competing in the Pacific Northwest Intercollegiate Tennis Championships hosted by the University of Washington in Seattle, Wash., Nov. 6-8.

Eastern head coach Darren Haworth came away pleased, particularly with the performances of freshman singles players Kyle Koetje and Fernando Mussolini, as well as the doubles team of sophomores Kevin Anderson and Chad Henninger.

"The Husky Classic was a great opportunity for our guys to compete against some great players," said Haworth. "Overall, I felt the guys competed very well and battled closely with some tough foes. It also gave us an opportunity to see some of our strengths and some things we need to improve on."

Koetje defeated Jake Davis from Gonzaga in a first-round match in Flight B, and Mussolini won a quarterfinal match over Alex Vanderschelden of Portland State in Flight A. Anderson and Henninger won a first-round match in men's open doubles over a team from Oregon, as did Mussolini and his teammate Stefan Simikic.

Other Eastern singles competitors in Flight A were Julian Sanchez, Nico Riego De Dios, and Simikic, and Flavio Malagutti, Henninger and Anderson competed in Flight B. The other doubles teams competing were Riego De Dios-Sanchez and Koetje-Malagutti.

Eastern will resume its season in January with the start of dual match play. Eastern finished 18-9 overall and was 6-2 in the Big Sky Conference a year ago.

Eastern's women's team will also resume its season in January after starting 1-1 in dual matches this fall. The women were 8-15 overall and 4-4 in the league last season.

"We will use the remainder of the fall to focus on conditioning with a lot of doubles emphasis as well," said Haworth.