Contact: Nathan Cameron, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7243

DECORAH, Iowa (Sept. 24-25, 2021) - The Loras College men's tennis team traveled to Decorah, Iowa on Friday for the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) Individual Championship, hosted by Luther College. Freshman Dubuque, Iowa native Kareem Kassas led the Duhawks on the weekend with a stellar performance in the C-Singles group, earning a silver medal finish after reaching the Championship match to faced Luther's Nico Martinez. 

Kassas, a Dubuque Hempstead graduate, got his weekend started in the preliminary round against University of Dubuque's Zach Norman and took a commanding 8-0 victory to advance. In his second match, Kassas went up against Chase Henry from Simpson College. Again, Kassas took control of the match, winning in two sets 6-3, 6-0. The win over Henry brought Kassas to his next opponent in Brock Bruns from Buena Vista University, but it proved to be slight work for Kassas as he advanced to the quarterfinals with an 8-4 win. The quarterfinals saw Kassas go up against Sebastian Zavala from Luther, where he won 8-7 after winning the tiebreaker by a 7-5 margin. In the semifinal match, Kassas squared off against Connor Fuzzey, also of Luther, and took an 8-5 win to reach the championship match where he took Martinez to a tiebreaker, but Martinez won the tiebreaker 7-3 to see Kassas earn silver. 

Another Duhawk seeing success on the weekend was Konnor Barth, who placed fourth in B-Singles. Barth's weekend opened with a 6-1, 7-5 defeat over Wartburg College's AJ Wilkins to advance and face Luther's JP Rosaldo in the second round. Barth reached the quarterfinals on an 8-6 win over Rosaldo and again advanced to the semifinals after defeating Harry Hawbaker from Coe College with a final score of 8-5. The semifinals matchup saw Barth go toe-to-toe with Francisco Navarrete from Luther, but he fell 8-3 to reach the third place match where he again fell to Simpson's Peter Walkwitz to place fourth. 

The Duhawks are back in action on Friday, Oct. 1 as they travel to St. Peter, Minn. to compete in the ITA Regional Championship, hosted by Gustavus Adolphus College.