The path for Hillsdale College's Sean Barstow and Brennan Cimpeanu has been set.
The pair found out on Tuesday night who they will be playing in singles and doubles action at this week's ITA Cup in Rome, Georgia, as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association released the official draws for its national championship event. You can see the full draws here.
Cimpeanu is one of four seeded players in singles in the 16-player field at the event, earning the fourth seed based on his performance in the 2021 ITA Cup and this fall. The junior, who has a 10-1 singles record this fall and was an All-American in the 2021-22 season, will open play in the Round of 16 at 11 a.m. on Thursday.
His first round opponent will be sophomore Jonathan Berling of Southern New Hampshire, who won the 2022 ITA East Regional singles title to earn an automatic spot in the 2022 ITA Cup field. While this is Berling's first ITA Cup berth as a singles player, he partnered with Fernando Torres to make the 2021 ITA Cup in doubles last year, going 2-1 and finishing tied for ninth in the nation.
The Norwegian is currently 7-0 in singles play in 2022 and is coming off a freshman season where he went 12-1 in singles play while helping the Penmen the Round of 16 in the NCAA Division II Tournament for just the second time in program history.
If Cimpeanu beats Berling and advances, he would meet the winner of the match between Teodor Zlatar of Harding and Tyler Davis of Point Loma Nazarene in the quarterfinals. Zlatar, a sophomore, won the 2022 ITA Central Region singles title to earn his first-ever bid to the ITA Cup, beating teammate and fellow ITA Cup qualifier Dani Ortiz in the final. Davis, meanwhile, is a senior also making his first appearance in the ITA Cup, after reaching the semifinals of the 2022 ITA West Regional and falling to teammate and eventual champion Alexander Leischner, who's also in the field.
Barstow and Cimpeanu are also one of 16 pairings that have earned the right to compete in doubles at the 2022 ITA Cup, and will open their run on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. with a match against the already-mention Southern New Hampshire duo of Berling and Torres in the opening round. The SNHU duo repeated as doubles champions at the 2022 ITA East Regional to earn their spot in the field.
If Barstow and Cimpeanu can get past Berling and Torres and advance to the quarterfinal, they would play the winner of the match between the third-seeded team of Lucas Hammond and Marcel Hornung from West Alabama, and the team of Mason Meier and Jan Skerbatis from Northwest Missouri State. Hammond and Hornung captured the ITA South Regional doubles championship to earn their spot, while Meier and Skerbatis won the ITA Central Region doubles title.
All singles players and doubles teams are guaranteed at least three matches regardless of result in the four day event. Cimpeanu and Barstow will be making their second appearance in the ITA Cup and the second ever in program history, looking to improve on Cimpeanu's seventh-place singles finish and the duo's 13th place doubles finish in 2021.
You can watch all the action from this weekend at this link, and follow along on hillsdalechargers.com for more results and coverage from the event.
Photo by Isabella Sheehan