It was bitter sweet for the Northwest Missouri State men’s tennis duo of Luis Altimires and Sergio De Vilchez as the advanced to Friday’s Fifth Place match after going 1-1 on day one of the ITA Small College Championships.

Altimires and De Vilchez entered the tournament as an unranked doubles pair and were match up against the No. 2 seed from Abilene Christian, Hans Hach and Borja Cortés in their first match. The Bearcats were up against arguably one of the top players in NCAA Division in Hach who was also ranked second in singles play.

Hach and Cortes took the first round match winning 6-3, 6-0.

Northwest would get a second opportunity Thursday afternoon however as Altimires and De Vilchez faced Roman Gonda and Lukas Kriem of Drury. The evening session proved more favorable for the Bearcat duo as they came out on top 7-6, 7-5 to advance to Friday’s Fifth Place match.

At the time of release Pitor Kruk and Jacob Carey of Bluefield State and Martin Chojnacki Yevhen Zakharov of BYU-Hawaii had not finished their match. Altimires and De Vilchez will face the winner at Friday at 4 p.m.

— NWMSU Sports Information —