Chicago State men's tennis player
Hugo Hidalgo Vega earned a 6-2, 6-2 straight set win over Michael Minasyan from Wisconsin in the Round of 64 Main Draw Singles at the 2022 ITA Regional Championships Saturday. The win marked the first time a Chicago State tennis player has won a match in the main draw.
"I"m really proud of what Hugo (Hidalgo Vega) accomplished over the weekend," head coach
Jack Barton said. "He earned his spot in the main draw by the work he put together last season and this fall. He made the most of his opportunity by winning his first-round match and playing well in the second round. This is an historic accomplishment for our program after the positive steps we made last season."
Last season, for the first time in the history of the Chicago State men's tennis program, Cougars individuals advanced into the main draw of the singles bracket of the ITA Division I Midwest Regional and it was a feat which was accomplished two times in one day.
Pedro Alvarez defeated David Alvarez Moreno from Youngstown State 6-0, 6-0, then a little over an hour later,
Jakov Suler defeated No. 8 Nam Pham from Illinois State 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Both players then lost in their first-round main draw matches.
The ITA Regional Championships feature some of the top men's and women's players across the country with over 8,000 student-athletes from NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA, Junior and Community Colleges competing across 85 ITA Regional Championships around the country. In Division I, regional doubles champions and regional singles champions and finalists qualify for the season-ending ITA National Fall Championships.
Alvarez and Hidalgo Vega were automatic qualifiers into the main draw of this year's men's tournament in singles. Alvarez dropped a 6-3, 6-0 decision to Trace Pickens from Northwestern while Hidalgo Perez earned the win over Michael Minasyan from Wisconsin. In the second round, the Round of 32, Hidalgo Vega lost to Gleb Blekher from Northwestern, 6-4, 6-2.
The ITA DI Regional Championships mark the last competition of the fall for the men's tennis team who will be back on the court in February as an affiliate member of the Horizon League. The league, which will include a partnership with the Ohio Valley Conference, will have a total of 11 men's tennis teams split into two divisions. The North Division will include Chicago State, Cleveland State, IUPUI, Northern Kentucky and Youngstown State, while the South Division will consist of Belmont, Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, Southern Indiana, Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech. Final conference schedules and championship format will be announced at a later date.
2022 ITA Men's Regional Championships
Midwest Region Qualifying Draw
Hosted by The University of Illinois
Oct. 20-25, 2022
Chicago State Results
Thursday's Results
Qualifying Singles First Round
Matthew Halpin (Notre Dame) defeated
Max Sandoval (Chicago State), 6-3, 6-4
Jameson Corsillo (Notre Dame) defeated
Arhaan Pahwa (Chicago State), 6-3, 6-0
Consolation Singles
Hsiang Lee (Northern Illinois) defeated
Max Sandoval (Chicago State), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
Arhaan Pahwa (Chicago State) defeated Vlad Meluta (Toledo) defeated , 6-4, 6-2
Friday, October 21
Doubles Round of 64
Tyler Bowers/Nic Meister (Illinois) defeated
Arhaan Pahwa/
Hugo Hidalgo Vega (Chicago State), 8-2
Jared Pratt/Mihailo Popovich (Wisconsin) defeated
Max Sandoval/
Pedro Alvarez, (Chicago State), 8-4
Saturday, October 22
Round of 64 Main Draw - Singles
Hugo Hidalgo Perez (Chicago State) defeated Michael Minasyan (Wisconsin), 6-2, 6-2
Trice Pickens (Northwestern) defeated
Pedro Alvarez (Chicago State), 6-3, 6-0
Round of 32 Main Draw - Singles
Gleb Blekher (Northwestern) defeated Hugo Hidalgo Perez (Chicago State), 6-4, 6-2
About Chicago State
Chicago State University Athletics is comprised of 15 intercollegiate teams involving over 150 student-athletes that compete in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and volleyball. CSU held memberships in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and NCAA Division II before transitioning to NCAA Division I in 1994. Melvin Bland was the first CSU student-athlete to gain NAIA All-American status in 1974 as a wrestler. Fred Evans became the first black swimmer ever to win a national championship in 1975. In 1991, the Chicago State women's tennis team became the first all-black college team to amass an unbeaten season at the NCAA level. CSU's women's basketball team earned a spot in the 2011 Women's Basketball Invitational and CSU's men's basketball team won the 2013 Great West Conference Tournament title, also making an appearance in the CollegeInside.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). The Men's Outdoor Track & Field 4x100-Meter Relay team were 2019 Honorable Mention All-Americans and WAC Champions. Their feat marked the first time the Chicago State's men's track & field program was represented at the national meet. Chicago State volleyball recorded a historic season in 2021, with Yanlis Feliz becoming CSU's first volleyball All-American and head coach
Tony Trifonov earning selection as WAC Coach of the Year. During that same season, three different CSU teams earned victories over Big Ten opponents with men's soccer beating Northwestern, women's basketball upending Wisconsin and volleyball, which established a school record 17 wins and hosted a post-season volleyball tournament for the first time in program history, swept Indiana in Bloomington.
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