ROME, Ga. – Valdosta State junior men's tennis standout
Luca Mack defeated Harding's Dani Ortiz in the Quarterfinal Round of the 2022 ITA Cup, Friday morning. Mack won the opening set 6-3, dropped the second set 7-5 and won the decisive third set 6-2 to advance to the Semifinal round Saturday.
Mack, who improved to 8-0 this season so far in singles, was on serve with Ortiz for a 2-2 ledger in the first set. Both players then recorded breaks for a 3-3 score, but Mack responded with three-straight wins, breaking Ortiz twice for a 6-3 victory.
In the second set, Mack used an early break for a 3-1 lead and then held a 5-2 lead, before Ortiz dug deep and staved off a straight-set defeat, winning five consecutive games for a 7-5 victory to even the match. It was the first lost set of the season for Mack.
The Emmendingen, Germany, native, Mack, would not be denied, however, as he raced out to a 5-0 lead in the third and decisive set and won 6-2 to advance.
Mack now will face either No. 3-seed Joaquin Benoit of North Georgia or Alexander Leischner of Point Loma Nazarene (Calif.) on Saturday at a time to be determined later. Benoit defeated Wayne State (Mich.) Dom Spicer 6-4, 6-2, while Leischner downed Mario Aleksic of Maryville (Mo.), 6-2, 6-3.
Benoit reached the ITA Southeast Region final, falling to Santiago Perez of Columbus State, 7-6, 2-6, 4-6 two weeks ago. Benoit earned All-America honors in singles as a freshman in 2022, all-conference honors in both singles and doubles in 2022, and all-league honors in both singles and doubles in 2021. Mack downed Benoit last spring in Valdosta, 6-4, 6-4 on Feb. 11.
Leischner made history for the Sea Lions with PLNU's first ITA West Region Champion with a straight-set victory over Leyton Bohren of Azusa Pacific, who Mack defeated Thursday. Leischner lost only one set in the regional and defeated the Nos. 1, 8, 9 and 4 seeds in the regional. Leischner went 12-4 in dual matches last season for the Sea Lions.
Check back with vstateblazers.com on Saturday for a recap of the match.
