The UIS men's tennis team opened its fall season at the Drury Invitational over the weekend, competing against players from Drury, Rockhurst, Southwest Baptist and Evangel University.

Kai Van-Roon led the Prairie Stars in singles play, winning flight fne with three victories during the tournament. He opened with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Drury's Yuan Lu before defeating Southwest Baptist's Romain Ruiz 6-0, 3-6, 10-6. Van-Roon added another win on the second day, defeating Rockhurst's Tommy Griese 7-5, 6-4, to claim the flight one title.

Heitor Souto also earned a singles victory on the opening day, defeating Southwest Baptist's Roman Filima 7-6(4), 6-3. Souto later fell to Rockhurst's Tommy Griese 6-2, 7-5.

Juan Pablo Salazar Schiaffino split his opening-day singles matches. He fell to Rockhurst's Aleksa Postic 6-1, 6-4 before defeating Southwest Baptist's Jila Ivanov 8-2. He added another singles match on the second day, falling to Southwest Baptist's Kocanovic 8-2.

Luke Pennington also split his first-day matches, falling to Drury's Emile Payment 6-4, 7-5 before defeating Southwest Baptist's Oliver Koranovic 8-4.

Matheus Taule earned an 8-6 singles victory over Evangel's Gabriele Rebella after falling to Drury's Fabriel Castro 6-2, 4-6, 10-2.

Lukas Pieringer defeated Evangel's Salvo Sardo 8-4 after falling to Drury's Caden Lingenfelser 6-4, 4-6, 10-5. Jorge Roman picked up an 8-1 victory over Evangel's Jlija Mastinovic after falling to Rockhurst's Jannis Piliar 6-4, 6-4.

Miran Todorovic opened with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Drury's Joseph Coder before falling to Rockhurst's Creed Skinner 6-3, 6-2.

Ben Loeffler earned an 8-5 singles victory over Southwest Baptist's Harisson Clark after falling to Rockhurst's Arnav Gannavaram 6-1, 6-2. Antonio Ayerbe Streubel dropped both of his opening-day singles matches, falling to Drury's Lukas Rieber 6-3, 6-3 and Southwest Baptist's Alexander Marinesco 8-5. Colton Pazdera fell to Rockhurst's Dulan Rainwater 6-1, 6-2 and Evangel's Alberto Moya 8-1.

In doubles action, Lukas Pieringer and Colton Pazdera earned a 6-2 victory over Drury's Cole Merriman and Connor Kitchin. Kai Van-Roon and Heitor Souto, Juan Pablo Salazar Schiaffino and Miran Todorovic, Luke Pennington and Matheus Taule, and Jorge Roman and Ben Loeffler also competed as doubles pairings.

Pieringer and Pazdera advanced to a second-day doubles match against Rockhurst's Ben VanLandingham and Diego Schtulmann, falling 6-2.

"Today was a great way to set the tone for the season," said head coach Henrique Leal following Saturday's opening day. "I'm very proud of how we competed and represented UIS today. All of our freshmen got their first collegiate win, and 16 of 18 players across the program have at least one win. We have a representative in the singles final, with Kai Van-Roon playing in flight one."

"Sunday was another great day of competition. I am really happy to finish the tournament strong with a title, as Kai Van-Roon won Flight One against some of the best players in the conference. We had a very strong start to the season. There's work to be done, and I'm very excited to see what this team can achieve."

The Drury Invitational marked the first competition of the fall for the Prairie Stars, who will continue their fall schedule in St. Louis on Oct. 9-10.