Press Release

Sept. 23, 2012

Altimires & De Vilchez claim ITA Central Region Doubles title

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Sergio De Vilchez and Luis Altimires knocked off rival Southwest Baptist and Domingos Carissimo and Omar El Kheshen to claim the USTA/ITA Central Region Doubles Championship Sunday at the Cooper Tennis Complex.

De Vilchez also fell just short of sweeping the regional as he fell to Marko Boskovic of Ouachita Baptist in the singles final earlier in the day. The freshman from Spain entered the tournament as the No. 3 seed earning a first round bye as he cruised to the finals with only a second round match with OBU’s Vitor Oliveira pushing the youngster.

Altimires and De Vilchez breezed to the finals as an unranked doubles team. The duo knocked off three MIAA foes from Truman, Washburn and Southwest Baptist before meeting with another pair from SBU in Carissimo and El Kheshen to claim a 7-6, 6-2 win.

It was nearly an all Northwest doubles final as Rafael Bugiga and Guilherme Narducci playing as the No. 3 seed fell to Carissimo and El Kheshen, 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals.

In singles play Rafael Bugiga almost made it an all Northwest finals for Sunday’s morning matches as well on the men’s side of the bracket. Bugiga entered the tournament as the No. 8 seed as he advanced to the semifinals before falling to OBU’s Boskovic, 6-0, 6-0.

The Central Regional Championships include nine teams on the men's side and 12 teams on the women's side consisting of 117 singles players and 61 doubles teams. The conferences that were represented included: the Great American Conference (GAC), the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA), and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).

The men's and women's singles champions and the men's and women's doubles champions advance to the ITA Small College Nationals on Oct. 11-14 in Mobile, Ala.