TIFTON — Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College started the 2018 NJCAA Division I tennis championship on the wrong foot last week, but the Stallions did well in the end.

“We salvaged the week,” said head coach Dale White.

The Stallions tied for sixth place at the tournament in Plano, Texas, scoring 25 points to tie them with Eastern Florida State and Laredo (Tex.). Tyler (Tex.) won the championship with 53 points.

Lukas Zavrel and Vitor Paulino won consolation championships in singles and Paulino and Juan Pino Contoleon won a consolation doubles title. The other two doubles teams, Frederic Fibleuil and Ferdinand Spickhoff and Matthias Rogel and Zavrel, each reached the semifinals in top brackets.

ABAC had three four round byes in singles matches, but Paulino and Zavrel lost their very next singles matches, sending them to the consolation bracket.

“They went in the back door,” said White.

Zavrel did not lose a set over his next four matches, defeating Evan Chubb of Mississippi Gulf Coast in the finals (7-6 (1), 6-1). Paulino dispatched of two opponents easily before running into Tomas Torres of Jacksonville College (Tex.) in the consolation finals. Torres won the first set, 7-5, but Paulino took the next two by 6-1 and 10-3 scores.

Paulino and Contoleon also fell immediately after drawing a first round bye.

The duo went on to win six straight sets of over three teams. In the consolation finale, they won over the Seminole State (Okla.) combination of Andrew Parker and Aleksandr Pokusaev, 6-4, 4-6, 10-4.

No. 1-ranked Tin Chen and Sergio Ingles of ASA Miami (Fla.) won over Fibleuil and Spickoff in the semifinals. Rogel and Zavrel were the top seed in their flight. They fell in the semis to No. 4 Andres Cabezas and Kentaro Mizushima of ASA Miami, 6-2, 6-4.

In other singles, Fibleuil, Rogel and Spickhoff all dropped quarterfinals matches. Contoleon fell in the second round.

“We got a decent finish out of the week,” said White.

There were other honors as well. Paulino was named National Most Improved Player of the Year during nationals and Fibleuil was named Regional Player of the Year.

The ABAC head coach is already looking towards next season. He knows for sure that two of his players will be returning, but is less sure on others. Recruiting trips have already been fruitful as he has players from France and Brazil coming in next season.