KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan men's tennis team wrapped up its first day of competition at the MAC Invite on Friday, with three Broncos advancing to the semifinals of their respective singles draws after one day of play. Competition will resume tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m.

Maik Steiner improved to a team-best 15-3 in singles play with a straight-sets win over Ball State's Lukas Andersen, surviving a pair of tight sets to pick up the win. Steiner took a 7-5, 6-4 decision over the Cardinals' top player to move on to the Flight A Singles draw semifinals, where he will face Northern Illinois's Frederic Cadieux.

Matt Hamilton tied Steiner for the top wins total on the team with an impressive singles win over his own, blowing out the Huskies' Louis Hamel in the Flight C Singles draw. Hamilton downed Hamel 6-1, 6-3 to move to 15-4 on the season, and will face Binghamton's Ismael Dinia in the semifinal round on Saturday afternoon.

Rounding out the success for the Broncos on Friday was team co-captain Stephen Payne, who came back from a one-set deficit to beat the Bearcats' Frenk Kote in three sets in a late match. Payne dropped the first set 4-6 but responded with a 6-2 win in the second set. The junior then closed out the win with a 10-7 decision in the third set super-tiebreaker. He will play the Huskies' Austin Russell on Saturday.

Flight A Singles
Maik Steiner (WMU) def. Lukas Andersen (Ball State) 7-5, 6-4

Flight B Singles
Carlos Manzanas (NIU) def. Andrew Cahn (WMU) 6-4, 7-5

Flight C Singles
Matt Hamilton (WMU) def. Louis Hamel (NIU) 6-1, 6-3

Flight D Singles
Vihar Shah (Binghamton) def. Pablo Mora (WMU) 6-4, 3-6, 10-8

Flight E Singles
Pat Downs (Ball State) def. Marc Shideler (WMU) 6-1, 6-2
Stephen Payne (WMU) def. Frenk Kote (Binghamton) 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (7)