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GRINNELL, Iowa – The Midwest Conference (MWC) Men’s Tennis Doubles Tournament will conclude a series of MWC tennis tournaments on Sunday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Grinnell College has earned the top seeds at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, while Gabriel Souza and Shoma Kishimoto have earned the No. 1 seed at the top doubles slot. 

Tournament Page

No. 1 Doubles
Souza and Kishimoto are 11-5 and the No. 1 slot and have gone 5-1 at No. 1 in league play, with their only defeat coming against Tommy Pitcher and Jose Coloma of Grinnell earlier this season.  The Pioneers have replaced Coloma with Cole Miller and will be the No. 3 seed.  Pitcher and Coloma were the defending champion No. 1 doubles team, while Miller is aiming for his fourth straight doubles crown.  In his freshman and sophomore seasons he won at No. 3, before moving up to No. 2 last season.  David Jumes and Bill Schuman-Kline will likely meet up with the Pioneers in the semifinals.  The Vikings earned the No. 2 seed after going 15-5 and 7-1 in the MWC.  Souza and Kishimoto earned an 8-3 victory over the Vikings earlier this month and will likely meet Monmouth College’s Dylan Wong and Ronnie Griffin in the semis.  The Rams haven’t won a No. 1 doubles title since 1976. 

No. 2 Doubles
Grinnell’s Sam Stickels and Raghu Inturi are the favorites at No. 2 doubles despite playing just five matches with each other during the regular season.  The Pioneers have won the last four No. 2 doubles titles.  The favorite at No. 2 singles, Trevor Allen teams with Ellis Lora-Arceo to form the No. 2 team in the flight.  Monmouth’s Paulo Pliego and Saxon Day earned the No. 3 seed after navigating the regular season with a 6-2 record.  Cornell’s Nick Van Den Handel and Tucker Barnes will be the No. 4 seed and are also inexperienced as a group with just a 4-3 mark. 

No. 3 Doubles
Will Hamilton and Ben Cobin make up the top-ranked tandem at No. 3 doubles.  Hamilton and Cobin went 4-0 in MWC action and have a 12-9 record so far this season.  The Pioneers have won every No. 3 doubles title since 2003.  John Zanotti and Joe Oleniczak of St. Norbert College went 8-1 during the regular season and suffered their only loss to Inutri and Cobin by an 8-2 score.  Cade Francour and Aidan Delgado of Lawrence are seeded third and should make it a difficult road for the Green Knights.  St. Nobert squeaked by Francour and Kieran Laursen, 8-6.   At the No. 4 seed, the Cornell duo of Hayden Dzurisin and Aditya Goayl are undefeated at 5-0, including 3-0 at No. 3. 

The No. 8-No. 9 matches at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles will start at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday and the tournament will pick up at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.