GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- On Friday, the Wayne State University men's tennis team began their 2018-19 season at the ITA Regional Championships hosted by Davenport University.

A SINGLES RECAP
Sophomore Niklas Karcz (Bottrop, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) was seeded at number 14 and took both of his matches of the day.  In the first round, Karcz played University of Missouri-St. Louis's Rob White (6-3, 6-0).  He moved on to play the University of Findlay's Carlos Blanco (6-0, 6-2).

Senior Taylor Vane (Southampton, England) fell short to Grand Valley's third-seeded Sebastien Lescoulie (6-2, 6-0).  Vane made it into the consolation draw and pulled a win over Michigan Tech's Nicolas Caviglia (6-2, 6-1). 

11th-seeded senior Griffin Mertz (Farmington Hills, Mich. / North Farmington (Detroit Mercy)) faced Cedarville University's Alex Totten.  He beat the Yellowjacket (6-2, 6-2) but lost in the next round against the University of Illinois Springfield's Sam Clarke (6-2, 6-3).

Junior Pierre Renaudie (Sathonay-Camp, France) participated in his first match as a Warrior and defeated Walsh University's Alex Puigmarti.  Moving on to the second round, Renaudie fell short to Grand Valley's number nine seed, Jack Geissler (6-3, 6-0).

B SINGLES RECAP
Freshman David Solar (Prague, Czech Republic) had a first-round loss against UMSL's Adrian Lessing (6-1, 6-4).  He moved on to play in the consolation draw, but lost in a third set against Hillsdale College's Brian Hackman (6-4, 5-7, 13-11).

Redshirt junior Jason Potter (Sterling Heights, Mich. / International Academy East) lost to Northwood University's Ivan Medvynskyi in round one (6-3, 6-0).

Redshirt junior Derek Sammons (Coldwater, Mich.) suffered a close third-set loss against Walsh University's Dawson Drummond (6-3, 3-6, 10-3).

Representing the Warriors, senior Nicholas Ang (Rochester, Mich.) won his two matches of the day.  In the first round, Ang faced Michigan Tech's Siddesh Mahadeshwar and won his third set (6-3, 7-6, 7-2).  Moving on to the next round, he defeated HC's Julien Clouette in a tight match (7-5, 6-3).

Freshman Max Rink (Wetzlar, Germany) had a bye in the first round of matches.  He came out strong in his first WSU match, winning against Lewis University's Chandler Stimpert (7-5, 6-2).

A DOUBLES RECAP
Sammons and Renaudie paired up to take on Walsh University's Jakob Riglewski and Joao de Campos and won (8-6).

Mertz and Vane lost to UIS's Sam Clarke and Tommy Martinez in a tiebreaker (9-8 (5))

B DOUBLES RECAP
Partners Rink and Solar blew away their Cedarville University opponents, Cole Moss and Dawson Poling (8-1).

Potter and Ang will play their first doubles match on Saturday.

UP NEXT
The Warriors remaining in the competition continue to play in the tournament on Saturday.