The 2026 3-Wall Eastern Regional got exactly one day of weather and had to use all of it. Rain washed out Sunday, so the whole tournament — eight small-ball divisions, from Open singles and doubles down through the Contender and B draws and three masters events — was played on Saturday, August 15. Four divisions were settled in a tiebreaker, one came down to a three-way tie on points, and the Open final never got played at all. Thanks to everyone who came out and got a two-day schedule finished in a day.
Open — Men’s Singles
Twelve players entered the Open Singles bracket this year. The round of 16 went to form: Nate Frank handled Jason Larose 21-7, 21-4, Joseph Kaplan beat Milton Terrazas 21-8, 21-8, Joshua Osburn took out Damon Gonzalez 21-7, 21-7, and Ray Persaud got past Raul Retian 21-12, 21-7.
Top-seeded Carter Kounovsky defeated Frank 21-8, 21-11 in the quarters and then topped the No. 4 seed, Logan Foley, 21-8, 21-8 in the semis — 35 points allowed across four games. Foley had earned that spot with one of the longest matches of the division, edging past Kaplan 21-15, 21-14.
The bottom half was the better theater. No. 3 Vincent Yam survived Osburn 21-20, 21-16 — one rally from a completely different bracket — and then knocked out second-seeded Carlos Chavez 21-15, 21-11, who had beaten Persaud 21-6, 21-8 to get there. Kounovsky against Yam for the title was exactly the final the draw had been pointing at. Unfortunately it never got played. Yam used every muscle in his right arm and ended up tearing his bicep in the process. In the end, this injury will only cause him to look even stronger. But because of this forfeit, Kounovsky took the Open singles title.
Open — Men’s Doubles
Six teams split into two groups of three, with the group winners meeting in a final. Group 1 belonged to Carlos Chavez and Jason Larose, who went 2-0 without dropping a game. They opened 21-13, 21-19 against Ray Persaud and Damon Gonzalez, and took the group in the last round when Yam’s injury ended his and Kounovsky’s tournament. Yam and Kounovsky had kept themselves alive with a 21-9, 21-8 win over Persaud and Gonzalez, but the forfeit settled it.
Group 2 tied itself in a knot. Alan Frank and Nate Frank opened by beating Joseph Kaplan and Raul Retian 21-8, 21-20, a second game that could have gone either way. Logan Foley and Joshua Osburn then ran through the Franks 21-6, 21-7. And Kaplan and Retian closed the circle by hammering Foley and Osburn 21-11, 21-0, as Osburn was nursing a hip injury. Three teams at 1-1, nothing separating them but points: Kaplan and Retian finished plus-17, Foley and Osburn minus-2, the Franks minus-15.
That put Kaplan and Retian into the final against Chavez and Larose, and it turned into the match of the tournament. With all eyes watching as the sun began to set, Chavez and Larose took the opener 21-16 and looked like the steadier team. Kaplan and Retian answered 21-16 and then buried the breaker 11-1 for the title, 16-21, 21-16, 11-1.
Open Consolation — Men’s Singles
The dropdown gave four first-round losers a second run at the day. Jason Larose, the top seed in the consolation, beat Milton Terrazas 21-14, 21-0 in one semi, while Damon Gonzalez moved through the other, as Raul elected not to play and focus on his doubles bracket, which he did in fact win. Gonzalez made the walkover count, however. In the final he beat Larose 21-14, 21-11 to take the consolation title.
Contender — Men’s Doubles
Alan Frank and Dan Ho went 3-0 to win the Contender round robin, but only the last match felt like a fight. They opened 21-4, 21-4 over Waylon Larose and Matthew Bailie and followed it with 21-10, 21-2 over Jack Goldberg and Alexandro Snyder, giving up 20 points in four games.
That set up a title match against Milton Terrazas and Larry Defauw, who had come through at 2-1 with wins over Goldberg and Snyder (21-11, 21-2) and Larose and Bailie (21-2, 21-3). Terrazas and Defauw took the first game 21-19 and had the division in their hands, but Frank and Ho answered 21-14 and closed it out 11-6 in the breaker.
Third place went to Larose and Bailie on the back of a tiebreaker of their own, dropping the second game and then running away with the third to beat Goldberg and Snyder 21-9, 19-21, 11-2.
B — Men’s Singles
Alexandro Snyder did not just win the B division, he never lost a game and gave up 15 points in the whole round robin. He beat Waylon Larose 21-3, 21-0, handled Matthew Bailie 21-3, 21-9, and finished with a walkover when Emmanuel Taylor did not answer the call for their last-round match.
Behind him it was a mess in the best way: second, third and fourth all finished 1-2, and the places came down to point differential. Taylor owned the best win in the division, beating Bailie 21-19, 21-17 in the opening round in the closest two-game match of the draw, but a pair of no-shows dropped him all the way to fourth. Bailie recovered to beat Waylon Larose 21-9, 21-6 and take second, and Waylon Larose, the younger of the Larose duo, took third.
Men’s 50+ / 60+ — Singles
Bruce Cohen proved to be the top player in the bracket. After a quarterfinal bye, the top seed beat Tom Stocks 21-0, 21-15 in the semis and then took the title from Candido Rivera 21-4, 21-0. Two matches, four games, 19 points allowed.
The best handball in the division came earlier. In the quarters, Tom Stocks beat No. 4 Eric Gunzelman in the only three-gamer in the bracket, 21-6, 18-21, 11-6. Rivera got to the final by rolling Jack Goldberg 21-0, 21-1 and then holding off second-seeded Larry Defauw in a semi that stayed tight for exactly one game, 21-19, 21-11.
Men’s 60+ / 70+ — Doubles
Three teams, and the division came down to precisely the match it should have: Bruce Cohen and Stephen Bossung against Eric Gunzelman and Keith Neihart, both teams having already gotten past Robert Humphreys and Peter Peart.
Gunzelman and Neihart came out and took the first game 21-9. Cohen and Bossung answered with a 21-4 second game — about as complete a turnaround as a doubles match allows — and then held on 11-7 in the breaker for the title. It gave Cohen his second championship of the day.
Humphreys and Peart finished 0-2, falling 21-10, 21-2 to Gunzelman and Neihart and 21-13, 21-2 to the eventual champions.
Men’s 70+ — Diamond Master Singles
Roger Berry and Ray Estevez both took care of the bottom of the round robin without much trouble. Berry beat Dan Ho 21-2, 21-3 and Peter Peart 21-1, 21-1; Estevez beat Peart 21-3, 21-1 and Ho 21-7, 21-3. That left the whole division riding on the two of them meeting in the last round.
It was worth the wait. Berry narrowly won the first game 21-19, Estevez took the second going away 21-7, and Berry closed it out 11-6 in the breaker for the Diamond Master title at 3-0 — the only blemish on his record being that one dropped game.
