May 14, 2005
Winston-Salem, N.C. -
The 17th-ranked Wake Forest men's tennis team captured a hard-fought first round victory in the NCAA Tournament, defeating 45th-ranked TCU 4-1 in Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday afternoon.
"We haven't played for a long time, three weeks to be exact," head coach Jeff Zinn said. "I wasn't sure how we were going to play today. We didn't talk about it much in practice, but I'm sure it was in their minds how well we would play after such a long layoff. I thought we competed very well. The match was interesting because it was fiery and was the last match if you lost."
The Deacons (17-6) claimed the doubles point with a victory at No. 2 where Andrew Hamar and Marius Adamski won 8-4. Wake Forest led 6-3 at No. 1 doubles when TCU's top player, Fabrizio Sestini, could not play through an injury. He and his partner Rafael Abreu defaulted, giving the Deacs an early 1-0 lead.
Sestini was slated to play No. 1 singles against Wake Forest senior Derrick Spice. Unable to play, the Horned Frogs were forced, under NCAA rules, to move every player up one slot in their singles lineup.
Undeterred, TCU fought the Deacons to the brink in almost every singles match.
"If you lose your best player you can roll over and lay down or you can play your hearts out and that's what they (TCU) did," Zinn said. "When you have a great coach like Joey Rive, you are going to get fired up."
"That's about as tough of blow as you can find (referring to the loss of Sestini)," TCU coach Joey Rive said. "We've been in situations like this where are down and come back with a lot of momentum. I thought our team did a great job of coming back out and not even thinking about Fabi and what transpired. Wake Forest is a good team and they played well."
Sophomore
Todd Paul, ranked 64th nationally, won his match in straight sets at No. 2 singles, 6-4, 6-4. But TCU cut the lead to 2-1 at No. 5 singles where
Marius Adamski lost a first set tiebreaker to Abreu and then lost the second set 6-3.
When TCU won the first sets at No. 3, No. 4 and No. 6 singles, the Deacons had their backs up against the proverbial wall. But Andrew Hamar, Brett Ross and Liron Strauss all battled back to force a third set.
Ross rallied to win his second set 6-1 against Jordan Freitas at No. 4 singles and won 6-4 in the third.
The Deacons sealed the match at No. 1 singles where senior All-ACC performer Derrick Spice won in a nailbiter, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 against Jacob Martin. Hamar and Strauss did not need to complete their match.
Spice's singles win marked the 89th of his career, bringing him into a tie for fifth on Wake Forest's all-time singles victory chart. Spice has his former teammate Mike Murray in his sights (95).
When Spice and Ross won their doubles match, it was Ross' 64th career doubles victory. A win on Sunday and Ross would tie Tom Kieffer for fifth place in the Wake Forest career doubles victory record book.
The Deacons face 14th-seeded Texas Tech on Sunday at noon central time. The Red Raiders cruised to an easy 4-0 victory over Army in the day's first match.
"Tech is just so unknown. We just don't know much about them," Zinn said. "They came onto the scene this year. They're doing great under a good friend of mine, Tim Siegel. I just hate to play them. I want them to keep going, but unfortunately, we have to play them.""
Wake Forest is seeking its first-ever NCAA Sweet 16 appearance. The Deacons are in the second round for only the second time in their history.
#17 Wake Forest 4, TCU 1
#1 - #50 Derrick Spice (WF) def. Jacob Martin (TCU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
#2 - #64 Todd Paul (WF) def. Jacopo Tezza (TCU) 6-4, 6-4
#3 - #108 Andrew Hamar (WF) vs. Radu Barbu (TCU) DNF, 4-6, 7-5
#4 - Brett Ross (WF) def. Jordan Freitas (TCU) 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
#5 - Rafael Abreau (TCU) def. Marius Adamski (WF) 7-6, 6-3
#6 - Liron Strauss (WF) vs. Andrew Ulrich (TCU) DNF, 4-6, 7-5
#1 - #46 Spice/Ross def. #13 Sestini/Abreu 6-3 (ret.)
#2 - Hamar/Adamski (WF) def. Freitas/Martin (TCU) 8-4
#3 - Joe Bates/Paul (WF) vs. Barbu/Tezza (TCU) DNF
WF: (17-6)
TCU: (8-15)
