Senior Santiago Villarruel finds himself in familiar territory, advancing to the semifinal round of the singles and doubles draws at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Cup after posting victories on Friday at the Rome Tennis Center in Rome, Georgia.

DRAWS

Villarruel, the top seed in the singles draw, cruised in his morning quarterfinal round match with a 6-2, 6-2 triumph against Arizona Christian University's Hugo Abril. The defending champion has won both of his matches in straight sets. He will now face Lev Sholosh from Lindsey Wilson University (Kentucky) in a semifinal match on Saturday, October 18, at 9 a.m.

Later in the day, Villarruel teamed with senior Luis Francisco Sampedro for another convincing quarterfinal triumph, this time in doubles, by defeating Arizona Christian's Lennert Lemahieu and Abril by 6-2, 6-1 scores. The No. 2-seeded Grizzly pairing will face a team from Lindsey Wilson in Saturday's semifinal round at 3:30 p.m.

Two other GGC singles players were upset in their quarterfinal matches on Friday. Francisco Sampedro, the No. 3 seed, lost to Sholosh by identical 7-5 set scores. Then, No. 4 seed and senior Francisco Perez Esnaola dropped a 6-3, 6-3 match to Xavier University of Louisiana's Nereo Suarez.
 
Coach's Corner
"It was a strong day today for Santiago heading into tomorrow's semifinal in both singles and doubles. He played extremely well in both matches. He is very comfortable in these moments, and it showed in his performances. Luis had a tough singles match but came back with full motivation to get a win with Santiago in doubles to play again tomorrow. I can't wait to see them compete and continue the plan for winning national championships," said Head Coach Hannah Keeling.
 
Up Next
Georgia Gwinnett College players are scheduled to play semifinal round matches in singles and doubles at the ITA Cup on Saturday, October 18, at the Rome Tennis Center, starting at 9 a.m.