[Tennis] Men's and Women's Tennis Earn National Recognition in ITA Rankings
SANTEE, Calif. – The SDCC men's and women's tennis teams flooded the final NAIA ITA Rankings of 2020 released by the ITA on Thursday.
For singles on the men's side, Chris Papa came in at No. 5 in the NAIA. Papa won the ITA West Regional Singles title and fared well in the ITA National Tournament in Rome, Georgia earlier in the month. The man he beat in the West final, Nick Nienhaus checks in at No. 11 in the nation. Papa's doubles teammate, Ivan Smith, came in at No. 16 to finish out the Top 25 singles players for SDCC in the nation.
Papa and Smith earned the No. 1 doubles team in the nation thanks in large part to their upset win over Federico Bonacia and Valentino Caratini of Georgia Gwinnett, who were ranked No. 1 before the national tournament. The win put them in the finals against a duo from Indiana Wesleyan, which Papa and Smith won to earn the second national championship for SDCC tennis. Nienhaus and Julius Kaufmann ranked No. 13 in doubles. Nienhaus and Kaufmann gave Papa and Smith all they could handle in the ITA West Region final before bowing out.
With the women, Angela Rinaldi tops the SDCC team with a ranking of No. 12 in singles. Sarah Urbanek closely followed at No. 14. Barbara Damiani finished at No. 18 and Valentina Sottile was No. 25.
In Doubles, the combination of Urbanek and Rinaldi came in at No. 5 for SDCC. Sottile and Damiani was No. 8 and Franziska Niederle and Tomi Felix snuck in the Top 20 at No. 20.