Oct. 24, 2002

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The Wake Forest men's tennis team began action Wednesday at the Omni Hotels ITA Region II Championships. Mike Murray and Trent Brendon both won two singles matches each to advance to the Round of 16 in qualifying play. Murray and doubles partner Andrew Simpson won their first round match of qualifying doubles play as well.

Murray defeated Stephen Ward from William & Mary 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in first round singles and then beat Valter Palva from Hampton 6-4, 6-3 in the second round. He is slated to face North Carolina's Geoff Boyd in the third round Thursday morning.

Brendon fought off Jeff Grollmand from Florida State 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 in the first round of qualifying singles play and then won 6-1, 6-7, 7-5 over Rodrigo Laub from Florida State in the second round. He will take on Duke's Peter Shults Thursday morning in the third round.

Murray and Simpson picked up an 8-4 doubles victory over Martin Parkes and Zorick Toltsan from Campbell in the first round of qualifying play. They are scheduled to play Soufien Rechag and Olivier Zimmermann from Charleston Southern in the second round Thursday afternoon.

Brett Ross and Derrick Spice dropped their first round doubles match 8-5 to Alex Herrera and Romain Jurd from Florida State. Ross won his first round match of singles qualifying play, beating Glauco Nascimento from Hampton 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, but then lost in the second round 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 to Stephen Amritraj from Duke.

More Demon Deacons will be in action today and tomorrow as the doubles main draw begins Thursday and the singles main draw starts on Friday. Trent Brendon and David Loewenthal play Kenneth Brown and Dwayne Pagon from Howard in the first round of doubles at 5:30 on Thursday. Spice will take on Zalan Kiss from Charleston Southern at 10:00 a.m. on Friday in the first round of singles. David Bere will face Santiago Falla from Charleston Southern at 9:00 a.m. on Friday in the first round of singles and Loewenthal is slated to play one of the qualifiers at 3:00 Friday.

Complete results from the Omni Hotels ITA Region II Championships are available at tennisinformation.com. The Tournament ID Number is 2882858.