Tag: Kyllian Savary

Savary, Ekpenyong named NAIA tennis All Americans

OLLU’s Kyllian Savary and David Ekpenyong have been named to the 2024 NAIA Men’s Tennis All-America teams. 

Savary earned First Team honors while Ekpenyong was selected to the Second Team.

The men’s tennis squad went 19-8 this spring season. Savary, a France native, was selected to the First Team along 15 other players. The senior boasted a 16-3 singles record and 13-6 doubles mark in his OLLU career prior to this season. This year he posted a 14-6 record in doubles and 16-2 record in singles.

Ekpenyong also had a standout season. The freshman from Nigeria had double digit wins in singles and doubles as well. He went 14-6 when playing doubles and 14-2 on the singles lines. 

Men’s tennis garners multiple NAIA Unaffiliated Tournament awards

The OLLU men’s tennis team garnered multiple awards from the NAIA Unaffiliated Tournament. The Saints lost to Xavier University of Louisiana in the championship match after shutting out Lewis-Clark State College (LCSC) in the semifinals.

Kyllian Savary and David Ekpenyong earned First Team honors. Johan Favelin was the lone Saint on the Second Team. Savary also was named Player of the Year while Ekpenyong was named Freshman of the Year. Savary and Ekpenyong won their doubles match against LCSC in the semifinals. Savary also picked up a line one victory in that match. Favelin was victorious in his singles match against LCSC with a 6-3, 6-0 win. Savary was the only player out of the three award winners that defeated XULA. He won his line one singles over Jacobi Bain 6-3, 6-1.

The No. 23-ranked Saints will wait to see if they are selected to compete at the NAIA National Championships. The tournament runs from May 14-18 in Mobile, Ala.

Men’s Tennis falls to XULA in Unaffiliated Tournament

The NAIA No. 23-ranked OLLU men’s tennis team lost to No. 10-ranked Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) 4-2 in the championship match at the NAIA Unaffiliated Tournament on April 20.

OLLU was the No. 2 seed in the tournament while the Gold Rush earned the No. 1 seed. The Saints are now 19-8 overall. 

Seven players at the tournament were selected to the All-Tournament Team. Luis Hernandez and Kyllian Savary represented the Saints. Head Coach Dave Watts commented, “This was a really tough match today. The team played their hearts out. There were a few points here and there but ultimately they were the better team today. I was proud of the support they showed each other. The players that were not playing drove nine hours to support their teammates and made a big difference for them on the court. This is a really special group.”

Men’s tennis loses close match to NCAA D1 UTRGV

The men’s tennis team fell short against NCAA D1 the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) 4-3 on Feb. 24. The Saints are now 4-6 this season.

Head Coach Dave Watts said, “The guys did a fantastic job tonight. Kyllian Savary and Jaroslav Majsajdr did a fantastic job at line one. The line two had a close match, but, unfortunately, we lost the doubles point. David Ekpenyong was the first off the court at line two for singles. The match came down to David Daniel at line four. It was the most exciting match of the season. He saved two match points but came up short 7-5 in the tiebreaker. I was proud of the way he competed and how he handled himself throughout the match.”

Men’s tennis ranked No. 20 in ITA preseason poll

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) has ranked the OLLU men’s tennis team No. 20 in its NAIA Men’s Preseason Top 25 Coaches’ Poll sponsored by Tennis-Point.

Head Coach Dave Watts has led the Saints since June 2022.

On Nov. 16, the ITA announced that Kyllian Savary received a singles ranking of No. 8 and Johan Favelin received a singles ranking of No. 36.

The Saints are in the ITA/Central Region, and on Nov. 16, Favelin received a singles ranking of No. 8, Jaroslav Majsajdr received a doubles ranking of No. 6, Guido Picasso received a doubles ranking of No. 6 and Savarry received a singes ranking of No. 1.

The Saints begin their 2024 season on Jan. 26 against Jacksonville College at the Saints home court Blossom Tennis Center.

Four Players From Men’s Tennis Earn ITA Rankings

The OLLU men’s tennis team had four players receive Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings. The rankings were released last week with two singles players and two doubles players making the cut for OLLU.

Head Coach Dave Watts said, “I’m really proud of our guys. I truly believe our players are even better than their rankings show. When I spoke with each of them, they were happy to have the ranking but definitely not satisfied. We are still really hungry and are preparing for the spring season.”

Kyllian Savary and Johan Favelin received national rankings. Savary ranked the highest out of the Saints at the No. 8 spot in singles. Favelin followed in the 36th slot out of 50 players. Savary is currently No. 1 in the central region and Favelin is eighth.

Savary has played 13 matches this fall with a 10-3 mark. He defeated players from Western New Mexico University, Schreiner University (SU), St. Mary’s University (StMU), Trinity University (TU) and Tennessee Wesleyan University.

Favelin also has a winning record at 4-2. He defeated members of Texas Lutheran University, SU, StMU and Southwestern University.

Jaroslav Majsajdr and Guido Picasso earned doubles rankings in the central region. They rank six out of 10 pairs and have played three matches together this fall. They defeated NCAA D1 University of the Incarnate Word and fell to TU twice.

Men’s tennis competed at Brother AI Invitational

The OLLU men’s tennis team started the fall season by competing in the Brother AI Invitational at St. Mary’s University. The tournament ran from Sept. 1-3 and 11 players competed for the Saints. Head Coach Dave Watts commented, “I thought our men did a good job this weekend. I could see the players trying to implement our systems of play after only one week of practice. Kyllian Savary led the charge by going 6-0 with three doubles wins and three singles wins with Enzo Frequelin. Johan Favelin and Guido Picasso also did well by going 3-0 in singles and only dropping one doubles match

OLLU recognizes achievements of tennis teams

OLLU recognized the accomplishments of the men’s and women’s tennis teams from the 2022-2023 season during the virtual 11th Annual Big Blue Athletics Banquet.

The season was highlighted by the team’s first-ever ITA NAIA All-American selection with Kyllian Savary. Both teams earned NAIA Scholar Team recognition. The men finished the season as finalists in the postseason, while the women were semifinalists.  

In addition, Savary and Lucia Popluharova were their team’s Top Saint selections.

Kyllian Savary earns All-American honors in tennis

Kyllian Savary of the OLLU men’s tennis team was named to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) NAIA All-American Honors team for the 2022-2023 season.

The criterion for earning All-American recognition is finishing in the top 20 of the final ITA national rankings for singles. Savary is currently ranked No. 15 in the NAIA after a spectacular year playing on the first line of singles for the Saints. He went 12-3 on the season with 10 being straight set wins.

Savary’s victories were against the University of the Incarnate Word, Texas Lutheran University, Jacksonville College, Saints Mary’s University, Texas A&M University-Texarkana, Texas Wesleyan University, Dallas Baptist University, Collin Community College, Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) and Loyola University of New Orleans. The Saints finished the season with a 14-13 record and lost to XULA in the NAIA Unaffilliated Group Tournament.