The Trojans Collect 11 Victories and Three Singles Finalist at Methodist Invitational

FAYETTEVILLE - The Mount Olive men's tennis team opened its 2025-26 season at the Monarch Men's Collegiate Fall Invitational hosted by Methodist University from Sept. 5-7.

The Invitational consisted of four flights of eight teams for doubles and eight flights of eight players for singles; totaling 32 teams for doubles and 64 total players for singles. Day one consisted of men's open singles play only.

Hiroma Nishikata in Flight four garnered the most dominating ride to the finals of any Trojan. Nishikata defeated both Anton McCloskey (Methodist) 6-1, 6-1 and Samuel Egui (Averett) 6-2, 6-1 to face Aliaksandr Rudy of Averett in the finals on Saturday.

Rasmus Grindheim made it to the finals as well in Flight two after defeating both Fredrik Foss (Barton) 6-2, 6-1 and Joel Lamotte (Belmont Abbey) 7-5, 4-6, (10-8). Grindheim's final match will be at 5 p.m. against Nicola Bottleberghs (Barton).

Niklas Gruenefeldt is in the finals of Flight six, defeating both Shea Mccarthy (Methodist) 7-5, 6-3 and Zachary Bessey (Methodist) 6-1, 6-3. Gruenefeldt faces Caio Lira of Methodist in the finals at 2:30 pm.

Kristoffer Dalbak defeated Belmont Abbey's Viktor Taskovics: 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 in the Flight one quarterfinals, before falling in a close battle to Guilford's Andres Mercedes: 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), (10-3) in the semifinals.

Flight three had both Joao Matias Sonaglia Guzman and Luke Oosthuizen each reach the semifinals in dominating fashion. Matias won 6-3, 6-0 over Filip Forsberg (Barton), with Oosthuizen defeating Decklan Rayner (Methodist) 6-1, 6-2.

Unfortunately, both Guzman and Oosthuizen fell in their semifinal matches.

Jacob Womble garnered a 6-1, 7-5 win over Andrew Waddill (Methodist) in the quarterfinals of Flight 5, before falling to Roger Pamies of Averett. 3-6, 6-7 (7-2).

Bram Poel, Philip Peter Carstensen, Sydner Pearson, and Alex Donnelly also competed in the Invitational, but lost in the quarterfinals.

The Trojans are set to begin doubles play as early as 8:30 Saturday morning.

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Players Mentioned

Niklas Gruenefeldt: 6' 4"; Sophomore

Bram Poel: 6' 2"; Sophomore

Jacob Womble: 5' 11"; Freshman

Kristoffer Dalbak: 5' 8"; Freshman

Philip Peter Carstensen: 6' 2"; Senior

Joao Matias Sonaglia: 6' 2"; Sophomore

Hiroma Nishikata: 5' 9"; Sophomore

Luke Oosthuizen: 6' 0"; Sophomore

Rasmus Grindheim: Freshman

Players Mentioned

Niklas Gruenefeldt
: 6' 4"; Sophomore

Bram Poel
: 6' 2"; Sophomore

Jacob Womble
: 5' 11"; Freshman

Kristoffer Dalbak
: 5' 8"; Freshman

Philip Peter Carstensen
: 6' 2"; Senior

Joao Matias Sonaglia
: 6' 2"; Sophomore

Hiroma Nishikata
: 5' 9"; Sophomore

Luke Oosthuizen
: 6' 0"; Sophomore

Rasmus Grindheim
: Freshman