STATESBORO, Ga. – The College of Charleston men's tennis team closed out the fall slate by winning three singles titles at the Georgia Southern Championship last weekend.
The final day of competition saw four cougars competing for titles with
Benedikt Henning,
Easton Thomas, Augusto Gonzalez Bonorino and
Youssef Dabbabi all going into championship matches. Henning took the flight A title while Thomas battled back from a set down to take flight B. Bonorino went to a third set to take flight C and give Charleston three titles over the weekend.
Henning opening play on Saturday against Joel Popov of Coastal Carolina, winning in straight sets 6-1, 6-0. The senior then took down Georgia Southern's Murphy McCullough 6-1, 6-1, advancing to the semi-finals on Sunday. Henning defeated Stefano Di Aloy of GSU behind two tiebreak wins (7-6, 4-6, 7-6) before again winning in consecutive tiebreaks 7-5, 7-6, over Antonio Munez to take the flight A title.
Thomas began on Saturday by defeating Charley Castaing of UNF 6-2, 6-4, followed by a 6-3, 6-2 win over Juan Castellanos of CCU in flight B. The junior then opened semi-final play on Sunday with a straight set win over Carlos Garcia of GSU (6-2, 6-1) before facing Joe Ellis of UNF in the final. Thomas battled from one set down to come back with a 6-7, 7-5, 6-3, victory to win the flight.
After earning a bye in the opening round of flight C, Bonorino defeated Taylor Streda of GSU 6-1, 6-2, on Saturday afternoon, following up with a Sunday morning three set victory over teammate
Ben Husum 1-6, 6-2, 7-6 to advance to the final against
Youssef Dabbabi.
Dabbabi also earned a bye in the opening round of play before defeating Agassi Tomegah of Florida Tech in straight sets. A straight set win over Jamison Burch of FT on Sunday, 6-3, 6-2, saw Dabbabi and Bonorino compete for the title, Bonorino coming out on top in three sets 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.
Over the weekend nine student-athletes competed for Charleston, picking up 26 wins in total with head coach
Jay Bruner and his team now looking to the spring slate.
Quotable - Head Coach Jay Bruner
We had a tremendous effort from the 3 flight champions over the weekend who had to deal with adversity and competitive opponents in each match. I was most impressed with the team as they rallied behind each other in every match and competed for each other. Each individual had to battle back from being behind at some point in the tournament and find a way to compete; that was the best lesson for the group as we head into preparation for the spring."
