ALLENDALE, Mich. - The men's tennis team competed at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships over the weekend and the biggest news was a doubles championship for Jonathan Bulmer and Juan-Louis van Antwerpen. The tandem made history as the first pair at Davenport to win an ITA event since the NCAA Division II era began and won five matches en route to the title.

The guys were unseeded entering the doubles draw and battled their way through a very talented field. The draw began with 32 teams in the "A" Draw and concluded with Bulmer and van Antwerpen defeating Brennan Cimpeanu and Sean Barstow of Hillsdale in the finals on Sunday by scores of 7-6, 6-4.

"Being so early in the year, we often look at the ITA regional as an event to measure where players stand, identify measures to improve over the fall and generally tune up players and coaches," said head coach Patrick Grashorn. "There are no easy matches with so many schools and players at each level. Expectations are always that we look to compete and improve throughout the event. We were able to get the full roster involved and Mike and I were very pleased with the level of fight from everyone and the coachability of the new players. We were very successful in the doubles draws this weekend, obviously capped off by Jonny and JL winning it all. Doubles has always been all focal point of successful DU teams in the past. Although the new dual match playing format as de-emphasized doubles, winning the doubles point carries forward a lot of momentum into singles. I'm very proud of the way our guys handled themselves under the pressure of the moment and dominated from the net. Movement and positioning for doubles is very different from singles but these guys are two of the best at it that I've had the pleasure of coaching."

van Antwerpen also competed in the main singles draw for the Panthers and won his first match against Pedja Trifunovic of Lewis 6-4, 6-3. He then fell to sixth-seeded Menno Servaes of Illinois-Springfield 6-1, 3-6, 10-2.

Bulmer competed in singles against Omar Prince of Ashland and won 6-3, 6-2 in his first match. The dropped his next one to Dominik Koenig of Indianapolis 5-7, 6-1, 10-6 in a hard-fought matchup.

Juan Jose Pino Contoleon dropped his first singles match but did such damage in the consolation bracket. He won 6-4, 6-2 over Noah Fasczewski of Hillsdale and followed that up with two more wins against Nathan Brumbaugh of Cedarville (7-5, 6-2) and David Pluszczyk of Wayne State (4-6, 6-1, 10-7). He made it to the final after an opponent had to withdraw in the semifinals and lost 6-1, 6-2 against Fabian Neff of Southwest Baptist.

Daniil Khitrou lost his first singles match but then defeated Barstow of Hillsdale 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 in the consolation and Martin Matov of Grand Valley State 6-2, 6-0. Khitrou also teamed with Maxim Drinchich in doubles and they won their first two matches in the "B" Draw.

Elijah Wisser in the "C" singles draw picked up three wins for the Panthers. He defeated Ryan Okonski of Wayne State in the first match 7-5, 6-3. He then took care of Andrew Freel of Michigan Tech 6-4, 6-4. His third match went to three sets but he triumphed over Diego Penz of Lake Superior State 7-6, 4-6, 10-5. Wisser and Bennet Dozeman did team up in "C" doubles to take the consolation draw.