Complete Brackets

Kalamazoo, MI –  The upstart Oberlin College men's tennis team turned in an impressive weekend at the ITA Central Regional Championships on the campus of Kalamazoo College.
 
"I really like what I saw from the guys this weekend," Head Coach Eric Ishida said. "We were much better than last week and we showed what we are capable of doing."
 
The tournament was highlighted by the doubles tandem of Manickam Manickam and Robert Gittings as they reached the quarterfinals of the 64-team field. After starting off the event with an 8-2 win against a pair from Westminster, the Yeomen duo would go on to knock off two seeded teams.
 
The No. 9 seeded pairing of Andre Adam and Cam Metzger of Rose-Hulman could not hang with Manickam and Gittings as they prevailed, 8-1. In the next round, they drew the seventh-seeded team of Jamie McDonald and Mitchell Thai of Denison and it was the Yeomen who downed their conference counterpart, 8-5.
 
In the quarterfinal, Manickam and Gittings were pitted up against the No. 1 seeded team from the University of Chicago. Erik Kerrigan and Ninan Kumar proved to be too much for the OC duo as they moved on with an 8-1 win.
 
After dropping their opening-round doubles match, Matthew Gittings and first-year Matthew Porges reached the quarterfinals of the backdraw, finishing the weekend with two hard-fought wins.
 
Michael Drougas and Stephen Gruppuso, who teamed up for a first-round win in doubles, each impressed in singles play.
 
Seeded ninth, Drougas easily handled DePauw's Alec Gretencord 6-0, 6-1 in the opening round. In the round of 64, the senior from Roanoke, Virginia, would outlast Robin Engel of Washington University in three sets by the scores of 4-6, 7-6(7-3), 6-2. Drougas saw his run end in the next round as No. 17 seed Nicolas Paolucci of Kenyon bested him 6-3, 6-4.
 
Gruppuso, who was seeded 25^th, opened with an easy 6-1, 6-2 win over Calvin's David Brown and would follow with a 6-2, 6-1 triumph over Hope's Daniel Kroeze. However, the sophomore standout would see his tournament end at the hand of Kenyon's Austin Diehl as the No. 9 seed earned a 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 win over Gruppuso.
 
Oberlin will conclude its fall season next Sunday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Yeomen will battle with the high-powered Tartans of Carnegie Mellon before tangling with Christopher Newport.