It was a weekend of highs and lows for senior wheelchair tennis player Jared Rehm after being stripped of the doubles title at the second annual Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Collegiate Wheelchair Tennis Championships.
The tournament was at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center in Mobile, the world's largest public tennis facility, Oct. 16 to 18.
"It was an amazing facility," said Nathan Waters, first year master's student. "They had at least 60 courts where tennis was played which made for a fun and exciting tournament."
The tournament format included Tier I singles, Tier II singles, women's singles and doubles with players from six schools.
Participating schools included University of Arizona, Auburn University, Central Texas College, Grand Valley State, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Texas at Arlington.
Rehm started with the singles bracket where he lost to the No. 2 seed. The loss put him in the consolation bracket where he was able to win two matches to win the bracket.
"I played a very good opponent in that first round and let that mess with my head," Rehm said. "I refocused and didn't worry about the person across the net which helped me to two wins and take the consolation bracket."
Since Rehm was the only Auburn representative, he was paired with MIT's Marcus Causton who entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed.
Causton won the singles title, not losing a single set in his matches.
The doubles championship ended in a three-way tie between Auburn, UT-Arlington and Arizona, but Auburn was announced as the winner.
"They announced us as the winner that Sunday and it felt great," Rehm said. "We left thinking we just won a national championship."
Rehm received a phone call days later from ITA explaining there was a mistake in the calculations.
"I thought she was calling to congratulate me again," Rehm said. "Later on in the conversation she told me she had some bad news and I knew exactly what she meant."
Rehm and Causton were stripped of the title after recalculation of the final score and took third place, giving the title to UT-Arlington.
"It was like getting hit in the gut," Rehm said. "On the other hand, I think I'm more motivated to go out and win a title next year."
Since there was a controversy of the winner at the tournament, Auburn is trying to host all the teams involved sometime in the spring to settle it on the courts and show there are no hard feelings.
"It'll be nice to settle things on the court instead of having to worry about all kinds of technicalities," Rehm said.
The purpose of the tournament is to make sure games won't end in a tie and won't have to rely on technicalities for the win.
"We're trying to get some University teams to help organize the tournament, and they seem to be excited about the idea," Waters said.
Waters said the ITA needs the help of Auburn and other universities to help get the word out about the tournament since it is only the second year the tournament was played.
"Because there are not many players, there are almost no guidelines," Waters said.
Tennis season is over for Rehm, but he's excited about the upcoming basketball season.
"I'm playing for a team in Atlanta right now," Rehm said. "I'm just working hard for the upcoming tournament in Tuscaloosa."
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