Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
ITA Mid-American Regional
Men's tennis completes fall schedule at ITA Regional Championships
10/22/2006 | 12:00:00 | Men's Tennis
Oct. 22, 2006
By Ryan Shaw
www.SIUSalukis.com
TULSA, Okla. - The Southern Illinois men's tennis team completed their fall schedule over the weekend at the ITA Central Region Championships in Tulsa, Okla. Head coach Dann Nelson, junior Rodrigo Lama and freshmen Karl Nilsson and Lucas Waked made the trip to the tournament hosted by the University of Tulsa.
The Salukis had a rough first day as Lama, Nilsson and Waked all dropped their opening-round matches. Lama fell to Oklahoma State's Artie Burmistrau, 6-1, 6-1. Nebraska's Arturro Navarro knocked off Nilsson, 6-2, 6-3. Waked dropped his match 6-1, 6-2 to Tulsa's Ricardo Soriano.
With their losses, all three Salukis entered the consolation draw. Waked lost in his first match to Ryan Thomas of Oklahoma. Nilsson defeated his first opponent, Dmitry Lebedev of Arkansas, 6-4, 3-6, 10-6, before falling in the second round to Illinois State's Alfredo Lagardo, 6-1, 6-0. Lama had the best showing for SIU in the consolation round, playing his way into the semifinals.
Lama defeated Oral Roberts' Cuan Farquharson, 5-7, 6-3, 10-5, in the first round of consolation play. St. Louis' Filipe Acosta was supposed to face Lama in the second round, but was forced to withdraw due to injury, advancing Lama to the quarterfinals to face Wichita State's Tiago Espirito Santo. Lama knocked Santo out of the draw with a 6-4, 6-4 victory. In the semifinals, Lama dropped a close match to Jorge Villanueva of Arkansas, 6-4, 5-7, 10-7.
On the doubles courts, Lama and Waked lost their first round match to Ivan Mendoza and Ricardo Lau from Drake, 8-4.
The Salukis will return to action when they open their spring schedule at the MVC Individual Championships in Des Moines, Iowa on January 26.
Players Mentioned
