Men's Tennis | 9/30/2019 3:33:00 PM

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Monday was one for the books for Buccaneer tennis fans as Barry saw both the men and the women's team capture ITA Regional Titles in singles after Jil Engelmann and Alejandro Ibañez Gallego both climbed to the top of their respective tournaments. 

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING:

"This tournament was a huge win for me," Engelmann said, "Due to my health, it's normally very difficult for me to compete in so many matches in just a few days. Because of my illness, I generally don't have as much energy as all the other players, and when you combine it with the fact that it was hovering around 90 degrees and extremely sunny, it made it especially tough. The whole time though, I just kept focused because I really wanted it. In each individual match, I put forth a strong performance and as a result I didn't loose a lot of games."

"This tournament was really tough and had a lot of ups and downs," Gallego said. "If you would have told me in the beginning that I was going to win it, I would have thought you were crazy. The conditions were very hard because of the heat and the frequency of matches in such a short period of time. In the end, I just took it match by match and it ended up going well. I couldn't have done it without the support of my teammates and my coaches."

WOMEN'S SINGLES:

• ROUND of 64
  •  #5 Engelmann (BU) def. Mathilda Vidgren (FSC) 6-1, 6-1
• ROUND of 32
  •  #5 Engelmann (BU) def. Itxaso Blanco (ERAU) 6-1, 6-1
• ROUND of 16
  •  #5 Engelmann (BU) def. Daniela Obando (NSU) 6-0, 6-1
• Quarterfinal
  •   #5 Engelmann (BU) def. #2 Ulyana Grib (LU)  6-2, 6-3
• Semifinal
  •  #5 Engelmann (BU) def. #3 Irene Recuenco (UWF) 6-2, 6-2
• Final
  •  #5 Engelmann (BU) def. #4 Natalie Espinal (NSU) 6-2, 6-3

MEN'S SINGLES:

• ROUND of 64
  • #7 Gallego (BU) def. Antonio Pons (Lee) 7-5, 6-4
• ROUND of 32 
  • #7 Gallego (BU) def. Umberto Rose (Lee) 6-2, 6-2
• ROUND of 16
  • #7 Gallego (BU) def. Aurel Ciocanu (SLU) 6-4, 6-3
• Quarterfinal
  • #7 Gallego (BU) def. Andres Donayre (ERAU) 3-1, Ret. 
• Semifinal
  • #7 Gallego (BU) def. Lucca Baptisa (LU) 6-1, 6-2
• Final
  • #7 Gallego (BU) def. Yohan Nguyen (VSU) 1-6, 7-6, 6-3

Teams from the Sunshine State Conference, the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the Gulf South Conference comprised the field: Barry (BARRY), Lynn (LU), Florida Southern (FSC), Saint Leo, (SLU), Embry-Riddle (ERAU), Palm Beach Atlantic (PBA), Spring Hill (SHC), West Florida (UWF) Mississippi College (MC), West Alabama (UWA), Valdosta State (VSU), Alabama-Huntsville (UAH), Delta State (DSU), Auburn-Montgomery (AUM), Montevallo (UM).

ON THE HORIZON:

Gallego and Engelmann now advance to the ITA Cup which will be played at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College in Rome, Ga., from Oct. 17-20.