Staff Report
The UNM men's tennis team came up short of winning a title at the Denver Invitational on Saturday.
After getting off to a strong start in the early rounds of the invitational, none of the young players were able to continue the momentum.
Five Lobos made it to the quarterfinal round, but were all eliminated before having a shot in the finals.
Freshman Graeme Kassautzki faced off against the tournament's No. 1 seed in the semifinal round, Shannon Buick from Air Force, losing in two sets 6-3, 6-2.
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Kassautzki had advanced to the semifinals of the Flight A Singles by beating No. 8 seed, Richard Johnson of Pepperdine. Kassautzki made it to the semifinal round in both tournaments that UNM has competed in this season.
In the Flight B singles draw, Derek Lynch and Chandler Brass were both knocked out in the quarterfinal round.
Lynch, a sophomore, won a back-and-forth match against Air Force's Greg Ferry in the second round 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. In the quarterfinal however, Lynch lost against Utah's Ryan Scott, falling 6-0, 6-4.
Brass was not able to handle Utah's Wes Hancock in the quarterfinals, losing in two sets, 6-2, 6-0.
Brass, a freshman, had a good showing in the second round, downing Air Force's Robby Alexander 6-1, 6-0.
The only Lobos doubles team to advance to the quarterfinals was taken out on the second day of competition as well.
Sophomore Max Jones and freshman Johnny Parkes lost 8-3, dropping the match to the University of Minnesota's D.J. Geats and Andres Osorio.
In the first round of doubles, Parkes and Jones were able to defeat Alexander and Justin Lau of Air Force 8-5.
Jones and fellow sophomore Kamil Pajkowski will participate in singles and doubles competition Oct. 3-Oct. 9 at the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Championships.
