Men's Tennis Opens Fall at Joe Hunt Invitational

Friday, September 28

Annapolis, MD

George Washington University

Joe Hunt Invitational

9/27/2018 12:05:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Colonials make first of three trips to Annapolis

WASHINGTON - GW men's tennis is set to compete in its first tournament of the fall, the Joe Hunt Invitational held at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Play begins on Friday with competition continuing on Saturday and Sunday.

ACROSS THE NET: The Colonials will be one of 11 teams competing this weekend, including A-10 foes St. Bonaventure, Richmond, and George Mason. In addition to host Navy, Temple, Fairleigh Dickinson, UConn, Monmouth, Air Force, and Delaware will be a part of the field.

FORMAT: The singles draw will comprise of five flights of 16 players while there will also be four double flights with four pre-determined matches.

DRAWS: Singles | Doubles

ABOUT JOE HUNT: This is the fourth edition of the invitational, which is named after the 1942 graduated of the U.S. Naval Academy. Hunt won the 1941 intercollegiate national title singles and the 1943 USTA National Championship, which became the U.S. Open, before losing his life in an aviation training accident in 1945.

NEW FACES: GW welcomes seven first-years to the squad, all of whom will be thrust into action this weekend. Zicheng Zang, Ben Barnett, Ryan Navarro, Hanyu Liu, Lawrence Sciglitano, and Michael Barsky will all see their first collegiate action in singles competition. All but Barsky will additionally compete in doubles. Fellow first-year Will Peden will debut in doubles.

BACK IN BUFF AND BLUE: GW does return five members of last year's team, two of whom will compete this weekend. Junior captain Jakub Behun is back after going 2-1 in singles and advancing to the finals in doubles at last year's Joe Hunt Invitational. Junior Dennis Afanasev will also compete in singles and doubles.