SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – Northern Kentucky men's tennis alumnus Jody Maginley won his first professional title last week, taking home the doubles crown with former Texas A&M player A.J. Catanzariti at the Dominican Republic F1 Futures on Nov. 30. It was the fifth championship doubles appearance in his professional career, after finishing runner-up in four finals.
 
"AJ and I played well all week," said Maginley. "We train together and know our games well. I've been pretty confident on the doubles court as well after making the finals in my last two tournaments before this one. So we just used that confidence and our games and did our best."
 
Maginley and Catanzariti made their third-straight finals appearance as a pairing last week, previously finishing runner-up at the USA F32 Futures in Pensacola, Florida, and the Panama F4 Futures in Panama. The duo fared better on the hard court in the Dominican Republic after playing their previous two tournaments on Clay. Maginley and Catanzariti started the tournament off with a 6-7(6), 6-2, 10-8 win over Alejandro Hoyos Franco and Emilio Andrea Segarelli before advancing to the semifinals by walkover. They had a dominant match against the Dominican pair of Victor Manuel Blanco Pretto and Jose Olivares, 6-1, 6-3, before taking down Luca Castelnuovo and Baptiste Crepatte in the championship match, 5-7, 6-3, 10-7.
 
"In my first runner-up in Florida, I played very well until the end but lost, 6-4, 6-4," added Maginley. "Last week in the finals, I was really hungry for the title. AJ returned well all week and that helps take the pressure off on return games. And I just played aggressively and we did really well."
 
Maginley's title is the first professional one for a former Norse. Head coach Brian Nester commended his former player, saying, "I'm very proud of Jody and what he has accomplished since he left NKU. He represented us very well when he was here and now he's playing on his own and following his dreams. It's wonderful to have an alumnus from our program competing at a high level on the pro circuit."
 
Maginley also credited his time as a Norse for helping develop his doubles game. "Doubles is something we practiced a lot at NKU," he noted. "I always enjoyed doubles and really learned a lot about it in college. The beauty about college tennis is that you get to play lots of matches week in and week out, and you can learn so much about your game. I have a lot of good memories from playing doubles at NKU."