Men's Tennis Has a Successful Weekend at the River Forest Invitational

RIVER FOREST, Ill. – The Belmont men's tennis team had a successful start to their fall season at the River Forest Collegiate Invitational held this past weekend in River Forest, Illinois.

In singles, all six Bruins won at least three singles matches, with three of them, senior Rafael Matos, junior transfer Fernando Mussolini, and junior Bruno Silva, going undefeated for the weekend. 

In the number four flight, Bruno Silva beat Nate Kirk of UIC 6-2, 7-5, Devan Faulkenberg of SIU-Edwardsville 6-3, 6-3, Gino Octa of Western Illinois 2-6, 6-2, 10-8, and Maksym Lagutin of Northern Illinois 6-0, retired.

In the number five flight, Fernando Mussolini Mussolini, a transfer from Eastern Washington, defeated Bryan Wei of Northern Illinois 6-0, 6-1, Stephen Washuta of SIU-Edwardsville 6-2, 6-0, Ryan Ho of the University of Chicago 6-2, 6-0, and Ben Yue of Western Illinois 6-3, 6-2.

Rafael Matos went 4-0 in the number six flight as he beat Jim Capalbo of Western Illinois 7-6, 6-0, Francisco Pereira of UIC  6-4, 6-0, Deepak Sabada of the University Chicago 6-3, 7-6, and Gautham Oroskar of UIC 6-4, 6-1.

In doubles play, the Belmont duos lost just two of their six matches.  The pair of Silva and Mussolini went  2-0 as they beat Mandela Shepard and Brandon Meeker 9-7 and then defeated James Li of UIC and Bryan Wei of Northern Illinois 8-4.

The men's team returns to the court on September 30-October 2 at the UTC/Baras Collegiate Classic in Chattanooga, Tennessee.