Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Tennis finishes first day of competition
09/16/2005 | 12:00:00 | Men's Tennis
Sept. 16, 2005
By Lacole Hook
www.siusalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois Men's Tennis team competed in the opening rounds of the Middle Tennessee Fall Invitational today. The Salukis have five players advancing to the semi-finals.
Coach Dann Nelson said he was impressed with the way his team started off the season.
"We are playing pretty good right now," Nelson said. "I am happy with how we did today. We are actually a step or two ahead of where I thought we might be at this point."
Advancing to the semi-finals are Tomas Gonzalez (Sr.), Feilpe Villasenor (So.), Sergio Sanchez (Jr.), Bojan Ilievski (Sr.) and Nick Bauer (So.).
In first-round action Rodrigo Lama (Jr.) defeated Ryan Fitzgerald of Chattanooga 7-5, 6-4. Lama then moved on to face Oskar Saarne of Memphis and came up short losing 6-2, 6-4.
Andrey Bubnov (Fr.) lost in his opening round to Javier Rodriguez of Belmont 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
Gonzalez defeated Badr Bouadbellah of Chattanooga 4-3 and Bouadbellah retired in the second set. He won his second match 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.
Villasenor began the tournament strong beating Jordan Hamilton from Indiana Univ.-Southeast 6-2, 6-0. Villasenor then played Bruno Andrade of Freed-Hardeman defeating him 6-3, 7-5.
Nelson is especially pleased with the play of Villasenor since he has not had any prior tournament experience at the Division-I level.
"Felipe is in the semi-finals of his first D-I tournament and that is good to see," said Nelson.
Sanchez won his first match 6-4, 6-3 against Felipe Abreu from Belmont. In his second match-up Sanchez defeated Patrick Puertolas of Austin Peay 6-4, 6-1.
Ilievski had a great day also defeating both Marshall Lipman of Belmont and Sam Patterson of Western Kentucky 6-2, 6-2 and 6-1, 6-2 respectively.
Bauer had a bye his first-round and defeated Mauricio Campos of Freed Hardeman in the second-round 6-4, 6-1.
Nelson thought everyone played well and it was a great beginning to the season.
"Overall, we had a good first day," Nelson said. "The matches will get tougher and tougher as the tournament goes on, so it will be good to see how our players handle that."
Saturday's Schedule
Semi-Finals
Ilievski vs. Ivan Besancon (Freed-Hardeman) 10 a.m.
Bauer vs. Juan Pablo Gomez (Tennessee Tech) 10 a.m.
Sanchez vs. Josh Bales (Chattanooga) 10 a.m.
Villasenor vs. Nick Cromydas (Vanderbilt) 10 a.m
Gonzalez vs. TBD 10 a.m.
Bubnov vs. Bryan Bankester (Memphis) 8:30 a.m.
Doubles action was postponed until tomorrow morning.
