CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. - The Illinois Wesleyan University men's tennis team completed the first day of the Hidden Gems Invitational hosted by Wabash College Saturday, Sept. 17. While no team scores were kept, the Titans had a strong outing to open the two-day competition.

Illinois Wesleyan had four Titans pick up wins in both of singles matches. The Titans faced Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology to open the day and followed with a match against Earlham College. Freshman Ian Turnbull (Bloomington, Ill.-Bloomington) picked up two wins at IWU's No. 1 singles, defeating Rose-Hulman's Owen Reynolds 6-3, 6-0, and Earlham's Sarthak Sharma 6-1, 6-2. Freshman Ben Vigneri (Casper, Wyo.-Phillips Exeter Academy) took down RHIT's Andrew Leonard 6-3, 6-2 and Earlham's Noah Radtke Kishimoto 6-0, 6-1 at No. 4 and 3 singles, respectively.

Junior Evan Turnbull (Bloomington, Ill.-Bloomington) won his first match of the day at No. 5 singles against Renato Prado from Rose-Hulman with scores of 6-3, 6-4. The older Turnbull then picked up his second win of the day, moving to No. 4 singles, when he swiftly took down Earlham's Leonardo Leao 6-0, 6-0. Playing at No. 7 singles, freshman Griffin Hammond (Metamora, Ill.-Metamora Township) defeated the Fightin' Engineers Lawson McCloskey 6-3, 6-2, and then made quick work at No. 6 singles against Robert Lemon from Earlham, winning both sets 6-0. 

The Turnbull brothers continued their strong day on the courts with a win over Wabash's Chris Zimmerman and Jett Brownlee at No. 2 doubles, narrowly defeating the duo 8-6. Vigneri and sophomore Zeke Cross (Springfield, Ill.-Springfield) paired up to take down Blake Discher and Eduardo Werneck from Wabash 8-4 at No. 3 doubles. 

The Green and White return to action tomorrow for day two of the invitational, taking on Wabash for singles play at 11:30 a.m., and Rose-Hulman and Earlham for doubles action at 2 and 3:30 p.m., respectively. The live stream of the matches can be found here.