Friday, September 16, 2005

Valparaiso opened up its 2005 fall men's tennis season on Friday with mixed success at the Ball State Fall Invitational held in Muncie, Ind.

All of the Crusaders won at least one singles match on the day, while the team did not fair as well in doubles play.

In the A Flight of singles, Nic Kooyers (Holland, Mich./Holland H.S.) won his opening round match against Tony Epkey of Ball State 6-4, 6-4 before bowing out in the second round against Alex Birchmeier of Western Michigan. Joe Venegas (Saint Charles, Ill./North H.S.) fell to Tim Bradshaw of Western Michigan in the first round of the main draw, but rebounded to post a 6-3, 6-3 win over Ross Gehlhausen of IUPUI in the consolation draw. He will face Alex Friesen of Northern Illinois on Saturday in the consolation draw quarterfinals.

Mike Shideler (Valparaiso, Ind./Munster H.S.) downed Brian Schubert of Xavier (Ohio) 6-0, 6-4 in the first round of action in the B Flight before falling in round two to Alfredo Lagarda of Illinois State. Dave Bukowski (Mount Prospect, Ill./Prospect H.S.) suffered the same fate, downing Greg Fallowfield of IUPUI 6-2, 6-3 before losing to Jeff French of Western Michigan. Alex Lau (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson Senior H.S.) and Mike Wagner (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer H.S.) both dropped opening round matches in the main B Flight, but rallied with wins in the consolation flight. Lau downed Daniel Jackson of IPFW 4-6, 6-3, 10-0 and will meet David Katz of Northern Illinois on Saturday while Wagner defeated Micael Chase of IPFW 6-1, 6-1 and has a date with Pete Van Lieshout of Marquette on Saturday.

In the C Flight, Dan Brunette (Carmel, Ind./Lutheran H.S. of Indianapolis) fell in straight sets to Adam Shaeffer of Xavier in the main draw before downing Matt Muns of IPFW 6-2, 6-1 in the consolation flight. He will meet Nathan Toles of IPFW on Saturday. Also in the C Flight, Blain Keller (Muncie, Ind./Delta H.S.) received a bye in the first round and downed David Lynall of IPFW 6-4, 6-1 in the round of 16. He will face Joe Vallee of Ball State on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the main draw.

In doubles play, Kooyers and Shideler dropped their first round match in the A Flight while Bukowski and Wagner did the same in the B Flight. Brunette and Lau lost in round one of the C Flight. The only Valpo duo to post a win on Friday was Keller and Venegas, they were 9-8 victors over Daniel Jackson and Tony Mitson of IPFW.

Play will resume on Saturday morning beginning at 9 a.m.