Oct. 17, 2007

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Sophomores Renzo Airaldi (Lima, Peru/Domingo Faustino Sarmiento) and Javier Tori (Lima, Peru/Markham College) each won a match in the ITA Mideast Regional qualifying rounds on Wednesday at the Boyd Tinsley Courts, but dropped second-round matches, just shy of reaching the main draw which starts Thursday morning.

Airaldi took his first-round match against Old Dominion's Dan Couzens, 6-2, 6-4, before falling to ninth-seed David Stone of North Carolina, 6-1, 6-1. He finishes the fall with a 12-2 singles slate after winning titles at both the USC Upstate Tennis Tournament and the USC Fall Invitational. Tori also won in straight sets against James Madison's Carlin Campbell, 6-1, 6-2 before falling in the second round to North Carolina's Tristan Heinrich, 6-3, 6-2.

Both senior Sebastian Gonzales-Orbegoso (Lima, Peru/Cambridge College) and sophomore Jack Roux (Santiago, Chile/Subercaseaux) fell in their first-round qualifier matches.

Junior Sandy Franz (Duesseldorf, Germany/Berufskolleg Hilden) earned a slot in the main draw, which begins play on Thursday. He will face Old Dominion's Aleksandr Seleznev at 8 a.m. Franz, who was a Division II All-Peach Belt Conference selection during 2007, will have a stiff challenge against Seleznev, a senior with a 56-12 career singles record heading into the season and earned Second Team All-CAA honors as a junior.

When doubles play starts on Thursday, Gonzales-Orbegoso, Roux, Tori and Airaldi will all get a chance for redemption. Gonzales-Orbegoso will team with junior Leandro Osorio (Quillota, Chile/Subercaseaux) to face Duke's Aaron N. Carpenter and Alain Michel in the first round of the Doubles Qualifiers. The duo will have to win two matches to reach the main draw, where they could join the teams of Roux and Tori and Airaldi and Franz.

Roux and Tori will face Duke's Reid Carleton and Kiril Dimitrov in the first round and Franz and Airaldi will step on the court against one of the 16 qualifiers to the tournament.