Miko Eala makes waves in US NCAA tournament

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

Miko Eala, Alex’s older brother, is putting on a show in the USA NCAA men’s tennis tournament as a singles player of Penn State University.

The 18-year-old Filipino tennis prodigy is currently undefeated in the Big 10 conference and has swept all of his singles matches.

Coming into Penn State as a rookie, head coach Jeff Zinn saw Eala’s potential and immediately honed it.

His first match was against college junior Trice Pickens of Northwestern University in three grueling sets, 3-6, 6-3, 10-8. He was the only member of the Penn State Nitanny Lions to register a win.

“I am disappointed that we lost, but our true freshmen are really playing well. Great job to our freshman Miko for picking up a win over a veteran Northwestern player,” said coach Zinn.

After Penn State’s showdown against Northwestern, they lost again to University of Illinois.

Despite this, Miko prevailed over his tough opponent Kweisi Kenyatte and survived the slugfest, 7-5, 4-6, 11-9 to go 2-0 in the NCAA singles.