Lake County's Love recognized at NJCAA national tournament

MCKINNEY, TEXAS & OXFORD, GEORGIA - While several Region 4 teams and players competed at the NJCAA Division I Men's Tennnis Championships and the NJCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championships, the biggest winner of the week was College of Lake County Head Coach Jim Love. Love was awarded the Herschel Stephens Coaching Award after taking the Lancers to their sixth consecutive national tournament.

In Texas, Prairie State College led the Region 4 contingent with a 19th-place finish out of 26 teams after compiling 9.5 points and Lake County wound up 23rd overall with 2.5 points. In Georgia, the College of DuPage posted 1.5 points to place 6th out of 7 teams.

With four wins on Day 1, the Pioneers were off to a hot start thanks to Nick Velders, Carlos Alcala, Gabriel Meirelles, and Nick Scroppo, however, none were able to keep the momentum going and all suffered a loss in the second round. On the doubles side, Abhinav Acharya and Nick Velders reached the No. 1 Flight consolation final and lost 8-3 after consecutive wins of 9-8 and 8-6.

The Lancers were led by Erik Delgado, who won his opening draw 6-0, 6-3 in No. 6 Singles before falling in the second round. Mike Kim picked up a consolation win in No. 5 Singles.

And the doubles tandem of Ethan Kim and Clayton Barma won a consolation round match for the Chaparrals, who finished 1-11 at the national tournament.