Unseeded Bearcat doubles team gets to nationals

Two members of the Northwest Missouri State men's tennis team will continue their fall season into the month of October.

The unseeded tandem of freshman Sergio DeVilchez and sophomore Luis Altimeres took out four other unsuspecting MIAA opponents to win the ITA Central Region Doubles Title over the weekend at Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield.

DeVilchez and Altimeres completed their first place ascent with a win over Southwest Baptist's Domingos Carrissimo and Omar El Kheshen in the finals.

"I know they had a chance of winning the tournament, but the reason they weren't seeded is because Sergio is a freshman and nobody knew who he was," said Northwest Missouri State tennis coach Mark Rosewell. "I told them and they didn't believe me. Well, they know now."

By winning the regional title, DeVilchez and Altimires move on to the ITA Small College Nationals in Mobile, Ala. Oct. 11.

The tournament contains the top eight doubles teams in the nation.

DeVilchez and Altimeres are the first set of Northwest players to make it to nationals since Chris Smith and Jake Saulsbury in 2007.

Despite a hurt ankle, DeVilchez nearly made it there in singles as well, losing in the finals to Marko Boskovic of Quachita Baptist.

Northwest's third-seeded doubles team of Rafael Bugiga and Guilherme Narducci advanced to the semifinals before losing to SBU's top pair.

Bugiga made it to the semifinals in singles as the No. 8 seed.

On the women's side, Northwest's doubles team of Camila Quesada and Alexis Bartek out-performed their No. 3 seed to finish runner-up.

The pair lost in the finals to SBU's Fanni Varga and Mehak Singh 4-6, 6-7.

In singles, Quesada lost to Varga in the semifinals. Bartek fell to Singh in the quarters.

"Cami had a great tournament," said Rosewell."Getting to the finals in doubles and the semifinals in singles, that's outstanding."