Six members of the Saint John's tennis team travel to St. Peter for the 2025 ITA Midwest Regional Championships this Friday-Monday, Sept. 26-29.

BRACKET BREAKDOWN: This weekend's competition will be split between the ITA Midwest Regional Championships and the coinciding Midwest Open. 

Singles
-ITA: Junior Alex Draeger (Litchfield, Minn.) and senior Taylor Duncan (Benson, Minn.).
-Midwest Open B: Sophomore Andrew Eckmann (Eagan, Minn./Two Rivers).
-Midwest Open G: Freshmen Henry Raiche (Maple Plain, Minn./Orono) and Nam Tran (Eden Prairie, Minn./Shakopee).
-Midwest Open H: Freshman Jack Gangl (Elk River, Minn.).

Doubles
-ITA: Draeger/Tran.
-Midwest Open: Duncan/Gangl and Eckmann/Raiche.

THE FORMAT: In ITA Singles, rounds 1-2 (Friday) and 3-4 (Saturday) will play 10-point tie-breakers for the third set. On Sunday and Monday, all ITA Singles matches will be full third sets. For the Midwest Open, all singles matches will be 2 out of 3 sets with a 10-point tie-breaker for the third set. 

For doubles, all matches will be 8-game pro-sets with tie-breakers at 7-7 until the finals of both the ITA and the Midwest Open. The finals of both doubles tournaments will be 2 out of 3 sets with a 10-point tiebreaker for the third set.

LOCATIONS: All match locations are listed on the draws for each match. 

-ITA Singles will be played on Friday in St. Peter at Gustavus Adolphus (Brown Outdoor and Swanson Indoor) and St. Peter H.S. for two rounds of singles. Play begins at 10 a.m. Friday.

-The B Singles will be played at Gustavus and St. Peter H.S. Competition begins at 9 a.m. Friday.  

-The C-H Singles will be in Mankato at Mankato East H.S., Prairie Winds Middle School, Bethany Lutheran College (BLC) and Alexander Park (near BLC). Play begins at 9 a.m. Friday. The plan is to complete the first three rounds of C singles in Mankato at these four sites.

-Doubles will be played at Swanson/Brown (indoor and outdoor) and St. Peter H.S. on Friday. 

LAST SPRING: The Johnnie tennis team finished last season tied for seventh in the MIAC with a 3-6 record (8-9 overall). Draeger and junior Sam Wolden (St. Louis Park, Minn.) combined to earn All-MIAC honors in doubles with Wolden also earning All-MIAC honors for the second-straight year in singles competition. Draeger was named All-MIAC honorable mention in singles.

The duo posted a record of 11-7 (5-4 MIAC) at No. 2 doubles. Wolden finished the season 11-5 (6-2 MIAC) at No. 2 singles, while Draeger was 16-4 (6-3 MIAC) across Nos. 4-6 singles. Draeger's 16 singles wins were the most by a Johnnie since Fabricio Moncada '13 went 20-6 in 2013.

WHO WILL BE THERE: In addition to the Johnnies and host Gusties, other schools scheduled to have student-athletes competing this weekend include Bethany Lutheran, Bethel, Carthage (Wis.), Carleton, Carroll (Wis.), Central (Iowa), Coe (Iowa), Concordia-Moorhead, Concordia (Wis.), Cornell (Iowa), Crown, Edgewood (Wis.), Grinnell (Iowa), Loras (Iowa), Luther (Iowa), Macalester, Milwaukee School of Engineering (Wis.), Northwestern (Minn.), Saint Mary's, St. Olaf, St. Scholastica, Wartburg (Iowa), Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Wisconsin-La Crosse, Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Wisconsin-Superior and Wisconsin-Whitewater.

LAST FALL's TOURNAMENTS: Eight Johnnies competed at last year's (Sept. 27-28, 2024) ITA Midwest Regional and Midwest Open in Mankato and St. Peter. Draeger and Cooper Anderson '25 both went 3-1 in the Midwest Open's B singles bracket. Anderson cruised to straight-set wins in his first three matches before falling to Gustavus' Odin Fouchier in the quarterfinals. Draeger, meanwhile, went 3-1 with a bit more adversity. He dropped the first set in all three of his wins, but battled back in the second and prevailed in the super-breaker. Draeger fell to Wisconsin-La Crosse's Brady Horstmann in the quarterfinal match.

A pair of doubles tandems – Anderson and Ryan Will '25, and Draeger and Wolden collected 1-1 records in the ITA Regional bracket. Duncan and matched the 1-1 doubles record in the Midwest Open C bracket.