ATLANTA - Christian Sanchez, Martin Rivera, and VanDer Woody will all make appearances in the HBCU National Championship semifinals after stellar showings on Friday.
The HBCU National Championships Tournament brings together student-athletes from universities and colleges of all sizes, but it is predominantly an NCAA Division I event, making the XULA players' efforts all the more impressive.
Sanchez, a sophomore and returning All-American for the Gold Rush, will play as both a singles and doubles semifinalist.
He earned a berth in the Flight A singles semifinals, the preeminent division, with back-to-back Friday wins. In the Round of 16, Sanchez defeated Marcus Weeks of Howard 6-4, 6-3. Then, in an ultra-competitive quarterfinal matchup, he outdueled Norfolk State's Szymon Malecki, 6-7(3), 6-4, 10-8.
Sanchez will next face Rafael Padilha of Hampton Saturday at 11 a.m. CST.
Friday evening, Sanchez again partnered with Woody, a senior from Baltimore, to knock off a Division I foe. The duo bested Flor De Sitter and Martin Catrice of Alabama State 6-3 to advance to the semifinals, where they will face Vicent Llobell Buigues and Joseph Puig Mccallan of Alcorn State at 8 a.m. CST Saturday.
Rivera had the big moment of the day for the Xavier men, knocking off a pair of Top 5 seeds to make the Flight C Singles semifinals.
Early in the day, Rivera defeated No. 4-seeded Mark Nawa of North Carolina Central in the Round of 16, winning the match in three sets, 6-3, 1-6, 10-2. He then defeated Howard's 5-seeded Yared Alfred 6-3, 7-5 on Friday evening.
Next up for Riveras will be a match against top-seeded Luka Videnovic of Alabama State at noon CST Saturday.
In other Xavier matches, Edilson Rosa advanced to the Flight B quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Szymon Janzen of Norfolk State. However, in the next round against Angel Hernandez of Jackson State, Rosa lost 6-2, 3-6, 10-3.
Similarly, newcomer Yarona Marule reached the quarterfinals in the Flight C Singles bracket with a win over 7-seeded Goran Krivokapic of Alabama A&M in the Round of 16, before retiring from his quarterfinal match against Videnovic.
Llobell Buigues and Puig Mccallan defeated Xavier's Fatih Sisic and Edilson Rosa 6-3 in the A Doubles quarterfinals. Sisic has also earned a berth in the Flight A Round of 16, where he fell 6-2, 7-5 to Kasper Kulpa of Norfolk State 6-2, 7-5.
The complete bracket for the HBCU National Championships can be found on the ITA website.
