WAVERLY, Iowa (Sept. 19, 2025) - The American Rivers Conference Individual Men's Tennis Tournament began on Friday, and Buena Vista is sending its top-seed Flight C doubles tandem of Nick Hiney and Ryan Smith into the semifinal round.

The duo began the day with a convincing 6-0 win over a combined doubles team of Simpson College's Reid Jackson and Wartburg College's Hibiki Watanabe. In the quarterfinal round it held of Central College's team of Trey Hall and Adam Boone by a 6-3 margin. Next up for the team in its semifinal round will be a battle against Dubuque's Jake Westberry and Andrew Bollis on Saturday morning at 9 a.m.

Buena Vista also won matches throughout the opening day from Jeb Bathrick, who went 1-1 on the day. His lone loss was in a tight three-set tiebreaker. The Flight C doubles team of Bryson Fredericksen and Owen Stansberry also went 1-1.

"Nick and Ryan were the No. 1 seed and had a target on their back early, but they responded and played really well all day," said BVU head coach Brett Groen. "It was fun to see the hard work of the fall pay off and have them reach the semi's. Owen and Bryson played their best doubles of the season so far and almost pulled off an incredible come back against NWU.  Down 0-4, they rattled off five straight games to take the lead, and two net cords bounced against us or it would be two teams in the semifinals. Kaiden and Tyler both played up in doubles and singles and rose to the occasion, almost winning in a tie break in B doubles. Jeb notched a good win as a freshman and fell just a few points short of the semi's in D singles.

Action for the day gets going on Saturday morning at 9 a.m.