Brown, Hillman, Montijano Compete at ITA Regional Tournament

Gavin Brown (SO/Branson, Mo.), Caden Hillman (SO/Springfield, Mo.), and Alvaro Montijano (SR/Sevilla, Spain) represented UHSP at the ITA NAIA Men's Central-East Regional Championship at Holy Cross University in Notre Dame, Ind., Sept. 29-Oc. 1. All three competed in the A flight for singles competition. Brown and Montijano teamed up to compete in the A draw for doubles, as well.

In doubles, Brown and Montijano faced American Midwest Conference (AMC) rivals Lucas Kzam and Alberto Pros Cieker from Missouri Baptist University for the first round of 32. In a tightly contested match, the two teams tied the pro-set at 7-7 to be determined by a 10-point tiebreaker. Kzam and Pros Cieker outlasted the Eutectic duo in the breaker, 10-5, to win the match, 8-7, and knock the Eutectics out of the single elimination bracket.

All three Eutectic players lost their first-round (of 64) matches of the singles draw. Alvaro Montijano was able to get four games off Carlo Cota Vargas of Olivet Nazarene University (Ill.) before falling 6-2, 6-2. Caden Hillman faced the No. 8-seed William Page of Holy Cross University (Ind.) while Gavin Brown took on Maximilian Fortun of Judson University (Ill.). Both Hillman and Brown were able to take one game off their opponents in singles play.

With the individual tournament behind them, the Eutectics next compete as a team, heading to Jacksonville, Ill., to take on Illinois College on Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 5 p.m.