March 10, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. - In their second BIG EAST match-up of the season, the Marquette men's tennis team fell 7-0 to South Florida today at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts in Tampa, Fla. The Golden Eagles are 0-2 against BIG EAST opponents, as they lost to DePaul 4-3 on February 10. Marquette's record is 6-5 this season.

Marquette struggled at doubles, losing at all three positions. Stephen Shao and Niko Boulieris lost a tight match at no. 3, 9-7.

"South Florida is a really good team this year," head coach Steve Rodecap said. "We missed some opportunities at doubles. We should have been able to close out the match at three but we let them back in. We just didn't capitalize on some of our chances."

In singles Mark Rutherford challenged Henning Hipp to a close first set but came up short losing the match, 7-6(5), 6-0.

"In singles most of their guys out competed us," Rodecap said. "We gave them too much respect in singles and I didn't think we made them earn their victories. Hats go off to this team. They are very talented."

Today marks the first time this season the Golden Eagles have played outdoors.

"We only had one day to practice outdoors before today," Rodecap said. "But our guys did a good job of handling the conditions."

Marquette will stay in Florida to take on Buffalo Tuesday, Bethune-Cookman Wednesday, and Northern Illinois Thursday.

-COMPLETE RESULTS-

Singles

No. 1- Ales Svigeli (USF) def. Trent Hagan (MU) 6-2, 6-0
No. 2- Marc Jaeger (USF) def. Stephen Shao (MU) 6-4, 6-2
No. 3- Henning Hipp (USF) def. Mark Rutherford (MU) 7-6(5), 6-0
No. 4- Mahmoud Hamed (USF) def. Brett Binkley (MU) 6-3, 6-1
No. 5- Thomas Estrada (USF) def. Niko Boulieris (MU) 6-2, 6-2
No. 6- Daniel Daudt (USF) def. Greg Sirotek (MU) 6-3, 6-1

No. 1- Hamed/Estrada (USF) def. Binkley/Rutherford (MU) 8-5
No. 2- Hipp/Daudt (USF) def. Hagan/Van Lieshout (MU) 8-5
No. 3- Jaeger/Svigeli (USF) def. Shao/Boulieris (MU) 9-7