Junior John Watts, seeded third in Division III tennis and second in the Midwest, who had never lost at this tournament captured his third consecutive title. Watts defeated top-ranked Mike Greenberg of Kenyon College 6-1, 6-0 in the championship match. Watts’ road to the finals included victories against five players seeded in the tournament.

Seniors Charlie Cutler and Chris Hoeland, the fourth-ranked doubles team in Division III, won the doubles title with ease, dropping just 10 games over five matches, culminating in a 7-5, 6-1 victory over sophomore teammates Isaac Stein and Max Woods.

Cutler, the 12th-ranked singles player in Division III tennis who was seeded third in the tournament, reached the semifinals of the singles draw before falling to Greenberg 4-6, 6-1, 6-3. In the quarterfinals, Cutler defeated junior teammate Danny Levy 6-2, 6-2.

Senior Trevis Bowman and Watts reached the semifinals of the doubles draw, losing to Stein and Woods 8-5. Senior Nirmal Choradia and freshman Dushyanth Srinivasan also reached the quarterfinals before losing to Will Gates and Hunter Schouweiler of DePauw University.

“The team did really well. We won just about all there was to win this weekend,” Hoeland, a co-captain, said.

The University also took four of the six back draws. Freshman Chris Gordon won the singles consolation final, junior Corey Yealy and senior Eric Pollak took the consolation doubles final and Pollak defeated Yealy in the St. Louis Singles final, the draw for those who did not qualify for the ITA draws. Gordon and sophomore David Zhu also won the St. Louis Doubles draw.

While the tournament has no impact on team standing, it gives players valuable experience.

“At this junction, it’s good to be playing well as you head into the off-season. You feel like you earn the break…It’s good to see right after the summertime that these guys are playing pretty well and are in shape,” Head Coach Roger Follmer said. “All of the guys can play at a high level and push each other around.”

“With the addition of the freshmen and improvements of returning players, we are deeper than last year. For Charlie and me, at least, we are also playing smarter tennis,” Hoeland said.

Hoeland, Cutler and Watts are all guaranteed All-American honors for winning the tournament and will compete at the Small College National Championships in Mobile, Ala. Oct. 16-19. They will most likely be the top seeds in the tournament for the second straight year.

“It’s really important for Charlie and me since we got demolished last year in the semifinals. We’ll be looking to live up to the one seed. We want to win,” Hoeland said.

While Watts, Cutler and Hoeland will play one more tournament before the end of the fall season, the rest of the team will not be in action before traveling to Drury University on Feb. 14 to begin the spring campaign.

“There are definitely some goals we haven’t achieved,” Follmer said, pointing out that the team is still in search of a national indoor title and its first UAA conference title.