MADISON, N.J. – Hamilton College's Connor Griff '25 reached the finals of the singles and doubles draws at the 2024 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Men's Division III Northeast Regional Championships, which were held at Drew University from Sept. 27 to Sept. 29.
 
Griff and doubles partner Antonio Chavez '28 earned automatic qualification in the 2024 ITA Cup, which is hosted by Rome Tennis Center in Rome, Ga., and begins on Thursday, Oct. 10. The four-day event brings together regional singles and doubles champions and finalists from NCAA Division II and Division III, NAIA and the junior college ranks. This is believed to be the first time Hamilton men's tennis athletes have qualified for the ITA Cup since the event's first year in 1986.
 
Griff was the No. 2 seed in the singles draw. He started his run to the final on Friday with a 6-4, 6-0 win against Union College's Jesus Sosa in the first round and a 6-2, 6-2 victory against University of Rochester's Haocheng Liu. Griff continued his domination on Saturday with a 6-3, 6-4 triumph over Skidmore College's Yuval Goodman in the third round and a win against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's (RPI) Tsubasa Okada by the same scores in the quarterfinals.
 
Griff pulled off an epic comeback in Sunday morning's semifinal against RPI's Archit Yemula. After dropping the first set 1-6, Griff trailed 3-5 and Yemula had match point. Griff rallied to tie the set at 6-6 and force a tiebreaker that he eventually won 15-13. He fought off at least a couple more match points by Yemula on his way to prevailing in that epic tiebreaker. Griff then dominated the third set by a 6-1 decision and clinched a spot in the final.
 
Unfortunately, Griff was forced to retire due to injury before competing in the final. At that point, he had played a combined nine singles and doubles matches in three days.
 
Griff and Chavez were 8-4 winners against Yeshiva University's Mark Adler and David Cattan in the first round and bounced Ithaca College's Ivan Kisic and Emiliano Pedrero in the second round, 8-5. On Saturday they eliminated Hobart College's Hyat Oyer and Rahul Vallabhajosula 8-5 in the quarterfinals and outlasted The College of New Jersey's Brett Schuster and Alberto Thomas 8-7 (7-5) in the semifinals.
 
In the semifinal, Griff and Chavez led 6-3 before their opponents won three straight games and tied the score at 6-6. Griff and Chavez held serve for a 7-6 advantage and had match point during the next game, but Schuster and Thomas recovered and they went to a tiebreaker. The TCNJ duo jumped out to a 5-3 lead during that tiebreaker, but Griff and Chavez ran off four consecutive hard-fought points and closed out the match. Griff's injury forced them to pull out of Sunday afternoon's final.
 
Tarun Korwar '27 played well during the weekend as he reached the quarterfinals in both singles and doubles. Korwar breezed to a 6-2, 6-2 win against TCNJ's Aidan Twamley in the first round and defeated Rochester Institute of Technology's Yu Tanimoto 6-3, 6-2 in the second round. He started his Saturday with a victory in straight sets (7-6, 6-0) over St. Lawrence University's Edvin Strandberg in the third round. Korwar's run ended in the quarterfinals against the top seed Aiden Drover-Mattinen from RPI, 6-3 and 6-2.
 
Korwar and Anson Anderson '26 posted an 8-5 triumph against Rochester's Joshua Chu and Rahul Ravi in the first round. They outlasted a duo from TCNJ 8-7 in the second round, including 7-4 in the tiebreaker. Anderson and Korwar dropped an 8-5 decision against Skidmore's Fletcher King and Nika Mori in the quarters.
 
Anderson advanced to the second round of the singles draw. He won 6-4 in the first set against Vassar College's Harry Zhang before Zhang retired from the match. Anderson was knocked out by RPI's Tasmay Shah by scores of 6-3 and 7-5.
 
Eerik Villem Aadamsoo '28 edged Hobart's Nick Grosso in a first round match that went to a third set super-tiebreaker, 6-3, 0-6 and 10-6. Aadamsoo was not as fortunate in the second round, falling to RPI's Andy Zhu by scores of 6-3 and 7-5.
 
The regionals were the last event of the fall season for the Continentals. They will return to the courts in March 2025.