The men’s tennis team had a successful weekend in the C. Roger Sorensen Tennis Invitational, getting great performances out of everyone who stepped onto the court.

Leading the way was senior C.J. Weber who had very little trouble throughout the tournament, breezing through his first two matches, and having very little trouble in his A-Flight championship match.

Weber first met up with Indianapolis-Purdue at Fort Wayne’s Michael Parker, defeating him 6-0, 6-1.

Next up, Weber took on IUPUI’s Luke Recker, again having little trouble, winning 6-0, 6-1. Weber’s third round match against Xavier University’s Jeremy Miller, once again taking the match 6-2, 6-1.

In Weber’s A-Flight championship match he faced off against DePaul’s Mark Henderson, the 1999 Australian Jr. Tennis champion. Henderson gave Weber a little bit of a challenge, but still could not gain an edge over Eastern’s number one player.

Weber eventually won the match 6-2, 6-4, taking home the A-Flight championship.

“C.J. played really well this weekend against really good competition,” head coach Brian Holzgrafe said. “He’s the leader of the team, and the rest of the team always follows.”

Senior Brandon Blankenbarker also had a strong showing in the tournament, reaching the A-Flight semi-finals, losing to DePaul’s Henderson in a close match. The match was a very back-and-forth contest, but Henderson barely pulled out the win..

In B-Flight competition, freshman Charles LeVaque played well, reaching the championship match, but lost the match 6-4, 3-6, 10-4 to DePaul’s George Wang.

In the D-Flight bracket, Eastern’s Collin Priestner clawed his way back from a semifinal loss after getting a first-round bye.

In A-Flight Doubles action, Eastern freshman teamed up with fellow freshman LeVaque, losing their first round match to the eventual champions from DePaul. The duo re-grouped to take the consolation championship over University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Jarrey Cascino and Derek Gonwa.

Overall, the Panthers had a very successful weekend with strong performances out of everyone on the squad this season.

“C.J. is the leader of the team this season, but all the guys are following very closely and playing very well,” Holzgrafe said.

The Panthers will next travel to Indiana to take part in the Ball State Invitational this Friday.