ROME, Ga. – Hamilton College's Connor Griff '25 and Antonio Chavez '28 were winners in the first round of the men's NCAA Division III doubles draw in the 2024 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Cup at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 10.
 
Griff and Chavez are the first Hamilton tennis players that have ever competed at the ITA Cup. They qualified for this event by reaching the finals of the Division III Northeast Regional championships at Drew University in late September.
 
Griff and Chavez improved to 10-4 this fall with their 6-1, 7-6 (6) victory against University of Mary Washington's Evan Fisher and Brock Ladehoff. Fisher and Ladehoff captured the doubles title at the Southeast Regional championships, and they had won their previous 10 matches before falling to Griff and Chavez.
 
Griff and Chavez advance to the quarterfinals against Tufts University's Alex Ganchev and Sacha Maes at Rome Tennis Center at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11. Ganchev and Maes defeated the draw's No. 2 seed from Emory University by scores of 6-4 and 7-5. They were doubles draw finalists in the New England Regional championships.
 
Griff also played in the singles competition after he advanced to the Northeast Regional final at Drew. He received a tough draw as he took on the bracket's No. 1 seed – Claremont-Mudd-Scripps College's Advik Mareedu – in the first round on Thursday morning. Griff lost by scores of 6-2 and 6-4 and finished the fall with a singles record of 13-4.