ROME, Ga. - The NC Wesleyan College men's tennis team had a very thrilling and successful weekend down in Rome, GA at the ITA Fall South Regional Tournament. Senior Jhonny Acosta was able to run through the main singles draw winning 6 consecutive matches without dropping a set to take the championship tournament title. 

With the straight set finals win over #1 seed Jordan Theron of Methodist 6-2, 7-6 on Sunday, Acosta immediately became a NCAA Div. III All-American. 

This championship earns Jhonny not only the honor of being a 2021-2022 All-American, but as well as the opportunity to return to the Rome Tennis Center in October to compete against the best college tennis players, across all NCAA divisions, at the ITA Cup, October 14-17.

The win also placed Acosta in rarefied air as the singles champion as 13 of the previous 14 years had been a player from Emory University.

"Jhonny Acosta's performance to become the 2021 ITA South Regional Champion was the toughest performance I have ever witnessed by a NC Wesleyan player," commented head tennis coach Albie Brice. "En route to the championship, Jhonny fully embodied the spirit of a Battling Bishop and claimed victory in the trenches of a very elite field."

"Jhonny has now set a competitive standard for his teammates and all future Battling Bishops Tennis Players," continued Brice. 

Acsota begun his championship journey early Friday morning with an easy 6-3, 6-1 win. He then won 6-0, 6-2 later Friday to advance to the third round on Saturday. Acosta then easily won 6-2, 6-1 early Saturday morning over Rhodes College before winning 6-2, 6-1 on Saturday afternoon in the quarterfinals over Emory. He then downed the #2 seed from Emory in the semifinals on Sunday morning 6-4, 6-1 before edging his rival from Methodist on Sunday afternoon. 

Video of match point here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azy8L9L6JYQ

Other Bishops competing in the main draw that had success were fellow senior JP Vallejo who fell in the quarterfinals 2-6, 6-4, 6-7 after sweeping through his first three matches and junior Augusto Roca, who also won his first three matches, two in three sets, to advance to the quarterfinals as well before falling to Theron 4-6, 6-2, 4-6.

Then, in the main draw of Doubles, Vallejo and Acosta also made a strong tournament run as the top seeded team advancing all the way to the semifinals with 8-4, 8-2, and 8-4 wins before falling to the eventual champs from Emory 6-7, 3-6 in doubles semifinals.