Oct. 2, 2007

IRVING, Texas - Fall men's tennis action is in full swing with men's teams competing at various fall invitationals and sending players to the Polo Ralph Lauren All American Tennis Championship being held at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on the Campus of the University of Tulsa. Below is a complete recap of last weekend's action as well as an update on how players are doing in Tulsa.

Complete coverage of the 2007 All-American Championship can be found here: http://www.itatennis.com/PoloAA07/PoloAA07main.htm

Check back to www.comferenceusa.com for a complete All-American recap.

EAST CAROLINA
Junior Aleksey Kochetov rebounded from an opening loss in the Blue A singles draw to take the consolation championship as the East Carolina men's tennis squad competed last weekend in the UNC Fall Invitational at Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center. The Pirates turned in a total of 18 singles and three doubles victories to highlight their first fall competition.

Kochetov led an ECU quartet that recorded three wins each as junior Brian Oakley, sophomore Stephen Whitwell and freshman Henrik Skalmerud joined the Russia native in posting 3-1 records.

After losing to UNC's Clay Donato in straight sets (6-1, 6-2) in the first round, Kochetov blitzed through the rest of the draw, defeating Campbell's Gabriel Delarue (6-4, 6-2), Florida State's Bradley Mixson (7-6/8, 6-4) and South Carolina State's Radek Pivonka (4-6, 6-1, 1-0/12). In other singles action, Skalmerud took the consolation title of the Yellow B group, defeating Phillip Nemec of Elon 6-1, 6-4 while senior Mike Catalano fell in the consolation final of the Garnett C bracket. Additionally, Whitwell captured third in the Yellow B draw.

In doubles play, the team of Oakley and sophomore Greg Simon fell in its first match 8-5 to Campbell's Delarue and Davy Sum but then posted an 8-5 victory over Richmond's Michael Sommer and Matt Farina to reach the consolation final, which was cancelled.

The Pirates will take October off from competition before jumping back into fall play Nov. 2-4 at the Charleston Shootout, hosted by the College of Charleston.

MEMPHIS
Senior Amrit Narasimhan's bid to become the first-ever Tiger to win their way in to the main draw at the ITA All-American came to an end Tuesday with a 6-4, 6-3 loss to Baylor's Denes Lukacs in the second round.

The loss drops Narasimhan to 3-3 in singles so far this fall with one tournament remaining on his schedule. He will next play in the ITA Southeast Regionals, Oct. 19-22nd in Lexington, Ky. at the University of Kentucky.

The men's team will send three individuals to the University of North Florida Invitational next weekend. Sophomores Charlie Ramsay and Spencer Heflin and freshman Michael Gaerthoeffner will play in the UNF Invitational, which begins Oct. 12th.

RICE
After winning three matches and getting to the finals of the A Draw doubles, No. 4 seed Ralph Knupfer and Christoph Müller fell 8-3 to No. 2 seed Jonas Berg and Erling Tveit of Ole Miss Sunday at the HEB Baylor Invitational at the Baylor Tennis Complex.

The Owls return to action at the ITA All-American Championship presented by Polo Ralph Lauren. Qualifying begins on Oct. 1 at the University of Tulsa's Michael D. Case Tennis Center.

No. 81 Knupfer and No. 86 Müller must win three rounds to qualify for the 64-player ITA All-American main draw. The duo also will participate in doubles qualifying which begins on Oct. 2.

The duo notched straight set wins Monday to open qualifying for the Polo Ralph Lauren ITA All-American Championships at the Michael Case Tennis Center on the Tulsa campus.

Both players are two wins away from making the main draw of the tournament.

No. 81 Knupfer upended Jason McNaughten of USC 6-2, 6-3 and takes on Baylor's Jordan Rux in the second round.

No. 86 Müller disposed of LSU's Jan Zelezny 6-3, 6-4 and faces off with Lenny Gullan of North Carolina in the second round. Gullan was a three-set winner over No. 15 seed Jamie Hunt of Georgia.

The German duo, ranked No. 39, also opens doubles qualifying Tuesday at 3:30pm against Lee Singer and Sanam Singh of Virginia. Second round doubles action is set for 6:30pm.

SMU
David Kuczer then went on to the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Tennis Championships, where he swept his competition in the pre-qualifying round. Kuczer blew past Clemes Geercken of Oral Roberts (6-0, 6-1) before beating David Galic of Baylor (6-0, 4-6, 7-5) and Robin Fernandes of UTSA in straight sets (6-1, 6-4). Kuczer moved on to the qualifying round, where he was eliminated by Sascha Heinemann of Hawaii in three sets.

Robin Fahgen, Adolfo Solares and Adham El-Efendi also participated in the All-American Championship. In qualifying doubles Alex Skrypko and Fahgen of SMU will all see action. Skrypko, a 2007 first-team All-C-USA selection will begin singles play in the main draw

The SMU men's tennis team is back in action Oct. 12-14 at the Midland Invitational. For the complete schedule and results, log on to SMUMustangs.com.

SOUTHERN MISS
The Southern Miss men's tennis team concluded its play in the Southern Miss Fall Invitational on Sunday morning, finishing with three wins in singles' play.

Strate Krestevski knocked off Aaron Krisan of South Alabama in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2, while Will Thames provided a win with a 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 win over Miki Artero (UAB). Diego Machuca rounded out the final win for the Golden Eagles, topping Tommy Petrich (UAB), 6-3, 6-0.

In other action, Robert Hodel (USA) defeated Domagoi Anic, 6-3, 6-2, while Saketh Myneni (Alabama) gave Oscar Machuca his first loss of the weekend with a 6-3, 6-3 win. R. J. Nagel (USA) downed Alex Arendt, 6-4, 6-4, while Houssan Yassine (Alabama) defeated Markus Wessinghage, 6-2, 7-5. Jordie Kindervator (Alabama) defeated Callen Fraychineaud, 6-2, 6-1; and Igor Nitikin (UALR) knocked off Wade Covington, 6-2, 6-2.

Southern Miss continues its fall competition, traveling to Georgia Tech Invitational, Oct. 5-7.

TULSA
The University of Tulsa men's tennis team had four players in action today at the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Tennis Championship at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on the TU campus. Senior Ricardo Soriano, ranked 67th in the ITA National Preseason Rankings defeated Kalle Norberg of Mississippi (7-5, 6-3). He will next play Ohio State's Balazs Novak at 9 am. Soriano will also participate in doubles along with Arnau Brugues. The pair, ranked 51st in doubles will face off against Matt Bain and Jerry Makowski of Texas A&M at 4:30 pm. Also playing doubles is senior Will Gray and sophomore Albert Jou, who play Virginia's Houston Barrick and Dominic Inglot at 3 pm.

Other TU players in action on Monday included: Jou, who fell to Baylor's Matt Brown (6-0, 6-1); junior Ross Cunningham, who lost to Nestor Briceno (2-6, 6-1, 6-1); and senior Andy Connelly, who fell to Mississippi's Jonas Berg (6-2, 6-1).

Connelly, Cunningham and Jou will all participate in the Qualifying Consolation Draw, which is being played at the Cascia Hall Preparatory School Tennis Courts. Jou will face Stefan Hardy of North Carolina at 8 am; Connelly plays Virginia Tech's Pedro Gerber at 10 am; and Cunningham plays Graeme Kassautzki of New Mexico at 11 am.

UAB
The UAB men's tennis team began action at the Southern Miss Fall Invitational on Friday by sweeping Troy in doubles competition and splitting three-of-six singles matches versus a split squad of Alabama and South Alabama.

In doubles play against Troy, seniors Hans Spangenberg and Adrian Tollstam won 8-5 at No. 1, while sophomore Alex Emery and freshman Tyrone Ewels won 8-3 at No. 2. At flight three, sophomores Miquel Artero and Thomas Petrich cruised to an 8-2 victory.

The Blazers took on a split squad comprised of players from Alabama and South Alabama in singles play. Spangenberg lost to Robert Hodel of South Alabama at No. 1, 6-1, 6-4 and Petrich lost 6-3, 6-1 to Saketh Myneni of Alabama at No. 2.

Ewels was handed a 6-2, 6-1 defeat by South Alabama's R.J. Nagel at No. 3.

Emery picked up the Blazers' lone singles win of the day at No. 4, beating Houssan Yassine from South Alabama, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

Tollstam lost to Aaron Krizan of South Alabama, 6-4, 6-2 at No. 5 and Artero lost 6-1, 6-0 to Jordie Kindervator of Alabama at No. 6.

UCF
After the three day stint at the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Tennis Championships held at the University of Tulsa's Michael D. Case Tennis Center, three student-athletes from the UCF men's tennis team return home after facing top-notch competition.

Junior Brock Sakey (Gulf Breeze, Fla./Gulf Breeze) reached the third round of the tournament, but was knocked out of play by seventh-ranked Alexey Tsyrenov of Auburn, 6-0, 6-3. The Gulf Breeze native had a bye in the first round and in the second round of play, defeated Arkansas' Dmitry Lebedev, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Freshman Claudio Romano (Valencia, Venezuela) took part in his second tournament as a Knight. Romano received a bye in the first round and faced No. 17 Jay Goldman of Arizona. Romano dropped the match 6-3, 6-3. Goldman won out and was one of the four in the third bracket to advance to the main draw.

Also accompanying Sakey and Romano to the event was sophomore Johan Beigart (Vaxjo, Sweden). Beigart, like his two fellow teammates, earned a bye in the first round. In the second round, the Sweden native battled against Louisville's David Simon, ultimately falling 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.

The Knights continue their fall slate starting on Oct. 5 when the team heads to Bradenton for the IMG Treibly event. The tournament is scheduled to last until the Oct. 7.