TOPEKA, Kan. -- The fall season will come to a close for Ichabod men's tennis beginning Sunday at the Kossover Tennis Center for the Washburn Invitational.
First Serve
- Washburn men's tennis begins its final tournament of the fall season this weekend at the Washburn Invitational.
- The tournament will now take place all on one day, Sunday, Oct. 26, due to rain over the weekend.
- The Ichabods are coming off a 2024-25 season that saw a fourth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament and and an appearance in the National Championship match.
- Last season Washburn also won a program record 23 matches, going 23-4 and won a third straight MIAA/GAC Tournament Championship.
- Washburn's 2025-26 roster features 10 players with five seniors, two juniors and three freshmen.
Washburn Invitational 2
- The Washburn Invitational will feature players from Emporia State, Cowley County Community College, Newman and Rockhurst on the men's side.
- All ten Ichabods will compete in the tournament on either the singles or doubles side or both.
- Doubles play will begin at 10 a.m. on Sunday with singles competition set to follow at 11:15 a.m.
Singles Statistics
- Throughout the fall Washburn has gone 70-39 (64.2%) in singles matches.
- After winning the ITA Central Region Championship Pavlos Parson is tied for a team-high with 12 singles victories going 12-3 on the year.
- Benjamin Fock has posted a 12-1 mark, giving him the highest winning percentage in singles on the squad.
- Yuto Miyagawa is also tied for a team-high with 12 victories going 12-2 on the year.
- Moritz Pieper has gone 10-5 so far in singles competition.
- Zino Nahirniak has gone 7-4 on the year in singles action.
- Tommy Cecchetti is 3-4 so far on the new year.
- Graham Faris has played in two tournaments going an even 3-3 on the year.
- Yoshinobu Nakatsuji is 4-6 so far in singles.
- Mason Fair has gone 3-6 on the year and 3-2 in the last five duals.
- Petr Leipner has started his freshman season 4-5.
Doubles Download
LAST TIME OUT
OMAHA, Neb. --- Washburn men's tennis finished day two at the Omaha Invite with a pair of singles group winners to wrap up the weekend's action.
Beginning the day in the semifinals of doubles, Benjamin Fock and Moritz Pieper lost an 8-5 match to a University of Nebraska at Omaha duo. They also fell 8-5 in a consolation match to finish out their tournament. Yuto Miyagawa and Petr Leipner went 2-0 on the day, winning 8-3 in the consolation bracket and getting another win via retirement.
Benjamin Fock completed a 3-0 run through Group A of singles defeating Kirtan Patel of Creighton 6-1 and 6-4 in two sets. Yuta Miyagawa did the same in Group B, prevailing in a three-set battle with a 11-9 win in the third over Rocky McKenzie of Creighton.
Both Moritz Pieper and Petr Leipner came up just short in third set 10-point matches from Group C and D respectively, completing the tournament.
Head Coach Kirby Ronning
- Ronning is in year six as the head coach of the men's and women's tennis teams at Washburn
- Has led both teams to the NCAA Tournament in every season at the helm with a 176-60 combined record with Washburn.
- Has been named the ITA Central Region Coach of the Year four times and the MIAA Coach of the Year twice.
- Prior to joining the Ichabods Ronning spent four seasons as the assistant coach at Azusa Pacific from 2016-2022.
- As a player, he played for four years at Bethel University (Minn.). Ronning received his bachelor's degree in Business from Bethel in 2014 and earned his master's degree in Physical Education at Azusa Pacific in May 2020.
The Assistants
- Kurt Reid enters year seven as a volunteer assistant coach for the Ichabods. Reid started his collegiate tennis career at Tulsa (1977-78) before transferring to Washburn for the 1978-79 season.
- A Topeka-native, Reid played tennis at Topeka West High School and was elected to the Topeka West Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.
- Graduate assistant Santiago Renton is entering his 2nd season as part of the Washburn coaching staff.
- He moved from playing to the sidelines after wrapping up three seasons with the Ichabods headlined by an ITA Cup Doubles National Championship in fall of 2023.
- Vasek Schneider joins the Washburn coaching staff as a graduate assistant for 2025-26 after finishing his playing career with the Ichabods in 2024-25.
- Schneider was an All-American in singles and set a program record with 32 singles victories in his lone season in Topeka going 32-7 overall.
FALLING FORWARD
- The Washburn Invitational will wrap up the fall season for the Ichabods. They will begin the spring season in late January, 2026.
