New College of Florida men's tennis players Franciso Duran and Kacper Laskowski advanced to the quarterfinals of the ITA Cup, earning a national tournament victory before concluding their doubles run Friday at the Rome Tennis Center.
The Mighty Banyan duo opened play Thursday with a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) victory over Morningside College's Mathys Arnold and Marcos Menendez Hervella. Duran and Laskowski took the opening set before closing out the match with an 8-6 win in the second-set tiebreaker.
The victory moved the pair into Friday's quarterfinals against Tennessee Wesleyan University's second-seeded team of Agustin Gaia and Rocco Mariani. Duran and Laskowski fell to the Bulldogs' pairing to finish among the final eight teams in the NAIA men's doubles championship draw.
Both newcomers to NCF, Duran and Laskowski will help anchor the Mighty Banyans heading into the spring season. Duran, a junior from Temuco, Chile, transferred from Saint Mary's College in California. Laskowski, a freshman from Northampton, England, joined the program from Northampton Academy.
They join a returning group that includes Timothy Phung, Hugo Fidler, Patrick Janikian, Konstantin Kukaras, Pedro Lemos and Carlos Quinones as NCF prepares for its second spring season. The Mighty Banyans reached the NAIA National Tournament in the program's inaugural season.
Duran and Laskowski earned an at-large selection to the ITA Cup after reaching the semifinals of the ITA NAIA Men's and Women's Florida Regional Championship, hosted by Keiser University in West Palm Beach, Florida, Sept. 24-28.
Following a first-round bye, the duo defeated SCAD's Yu Dian Dong and Gonzalo Lopez Aliaga 8-3 in the round of 16. They then posted an 8-4 quarterfinal victory over Keiser's Oliver King and Andrew Alec Reznik before falling to SCAD's second-seeded Pedro De la Riva and Gonzalo Fernandez in the semifinals.
Their regional semifinal appearance made them eligible for at-large consideration. The ITA selection process considers regional finalists and semifinalists, with previous-year rankings, quality wins at the regional tournament and the overall strength of the region among the selection factors.
