Baltimore, Md. (September 23, 2016) – Three out of four Mount St. Mary's University men's tennis pairings won their first round matches on Friday at the Loyola Invitational to advance to the quarterfinal round.

The invitational is a 'Points of the Compass' format, with each team consisting of two players and each round consisting of a doubles match and two singles matches. The winner of the best-of-three advances to the next round.

Darren Mast and Brandon Wortkotter led the way for the Mount, sweeping their best-of-three round against Villanova's Luis Miranda and William Elmore. Mast and Wortkotter posted a 6-2 victory in doubles play, before Mast topped Miranda, 6-2, 6-4, and Wortkotter registered a 6-3, 6-0 win over Elmore in singles.

Louis Tonon and Zach Burau also posted a strong showing, taking two-of-three matches against Brian Hoffarth and Tyler Blessing of Loyola. The Mount duo won their doubles match by a 6-1 decision, and Tonon clinched the victory for the pairing with a 6-1, 4-6 (7) victory over Hoffarth in singles play. Blessing notched a 6-2, 6-7 (3)(7) win over Burau in the other singles match.

The final Mount pairing to advance to the quarterfinals was Mateo DeSomocurcio and Jean Armstrong, who topped Will Andrews and Scott Thygessen of Johns Hopking by taking two-of-three. DeSomocurcio and Armstrong registered a 6-2 victory in doubles, before DeSomocurcio downed Andrews by a 6-1, 6-2 margin in singles to clinch it for the Mount. Thygessen tallied a 6-3, 6-1 win over Armstrong in the other singles match.  

Peter Landis and Sean McNulty will head to the consolation round after falling to Justin Kang and Austin Gu of Johns Hopkins. The Blue Jays' pairing earned a 6-4 win in doubles, and Kang topped Landis, 6-1, 6-4, and Gu defeated McNulty, 6-2, 6-4, in singles action.

The Mount returns to action for the quarterfinal round on Saturday (September 24), with play beginning at 9 a.m.