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The Harding men's tennis team opened their season this past weekend at the 2023 ITA Division II Men's Central Regional Championships in Topeka, Kansas and was led by the doubles team of Cas de Ruiter and Teodor Zlatar , who made the finals of the main doubles draw. De Ruiter and Zlatar marched their way through the bracket picking up wins against teams from Southern Arkansas, Washburn, Southeastern Oklahoma, and Northwest Missouri State.
Their closest victory was a 9-7 win over Thabo Ncube and Juan Gonzalez from Southeastern Oklahoma. The pair suffered their first loss in the finals to Fernando Docters and Ramon Strassmann of Ouachita Baptist 6-7, 4-6. Caleb Folse and Jaydon van Vreden were the only other Bisons team to win a match in the main draw and opened with an 8-5 victory before falling in the second round to Washburn.
Bryce Walker and Edoardo D'Arrigo fell in their opening match before winning two matches to reach the semifinals of the consolation bracket. The duo eventually fell to Ole Valkyser and Pierre Copin of Southern Arkansas by a score of 6-8. In singles action, Zlatar picked up two victories putting him in the Round of 16 before eventually falling in a match tiebreaker to Santiago Rendon of Washburn.
De Ruiter and Walker both picked up straight set victories in their opening round matches before falling in the following round. Folse was the other Bison to pick up singles victories with two in the consolation bracket. The Bisons will return to action on September 30 when they host Arkansas-Fort Smith at the David Elliott Tennis Complex at 2 p.m.
