Saturday, September 22, 2007

            Alex Lau (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson Senior H.S.) won both his singles and doubles matches on Friday afternoon as Valparaiso kicked off its 2007 fall campaign with several solid efforts at the Bradley Invitational held in Peoria, Ill.

             Kyle Stump (Plymouth, Ind./Plymouth H.S.) and Mike Shideler (Valparaiso, Ind./Munster H.S.) also earned singles wins while Tom Litscher (Eau Claire, Wis./Memorial H.S.) teamed with Lau for the doubles victory.  

            Lau, playing in the A Flight, needed a third set tiebreaker, but defeated Felipe Acosta of Saint Louis 6-4, 6-7 (4), 10-8 to advance to Saturday’s semifinals.  The junior also teamed with Litscher in the B doubles draw to defeat Eric Fey and Dan Wilson of UIC by an 8-3 score.

             “Alex came out of the blocks strong and had very solid wins in both singles and doubles,” Valpo head coach Jim Daugherty said afterwards.

             In the D flight, Stump and Shideler both picked up victories, and, with semifinal victories tomorrow, are on track to face each other in the championship match.  Stump, a freshman, defeated UIC’s Sean Kreymborg 7-6 (5), 5-7, 10-4 in his opening round match while Shideler downed Blake Powers of IUPUI 6-3, 6-3.

             In other singles action on day one of the three day event, Mike Wagner (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer H.S.) fell to Adriano Liccardo of UIC in a tight match 7-6 (2), 6-4 while Litcher fell to Javier Saab of IUPUI 6-1, 6-3 in the same flight.  Dan Brunette (Carmel, Ind./Lutheran H.S. of Indianapolis) fell 6-2, 7-6 (7) in his C flight match while freshmen Phidias Fortune (San Antonio, Texas/New Braunfels H.S.) and Dan Lewallen (Wheatfield, Ind./Kankakee Valley H.S.) each lost in straight sets in the E flight.

             Wagner and Shideler played a tight A doubles match against Acosta and P.J. Hendrie of Saint Louis before falling 8-6.  Brunette and Stump, playing in the same flight as Lau and Litscher, dropped an 8-3 decision to a pair from Bradley while Fortune and Lewellen fell in the C doubles flight.

             “I am really encouraged by how competitive we were today,” Daugherty said.  “Even with some of the close losses we played well.”

             Valparaiso will return to the courts again on Saturday morning beginning at 9 a.m. for day two of the event.