Saturday, January 20, 2007

RICHMOND, Va. (January 20, 2007) - The ETSU men's tennis team swept their first two opponents of the spring season today defeating East Carolina University and Temple University at the VCU 4x1 Invitational. Without dropping a match in singles or doubles, they defeated East Carolina 5-0, and went on to defeat Temple 5-0 in the afternoon match.

 In their opening match of the season, Travis Sandlant (Werribee, Australia) and Alex Ahlgren (Tyreso, Sweden) defeated Brian Walters and Matt Peeler 6-2, 6-3 in the doubles match. In singles action Enrique Olivares (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela) led the Bucs in the No. 1 position defeating Aleksey Kochetov 6-1, 6-2, while Sebastian Serrano (Cartagena, Colombia) defeated Henrique Viani 6-0, 6-1 in the No. 2 position.

Lisandro Picardo (Mar Del Plata, Argentina) picked up a win in the No. 3 slot defeating Bryan Oakley 6-2, 6-2, while newcomer Daniel Isaza (Medellin, Colombia) split sets with his opponent Samuel McSpadden 6-0, 4-6 before winning the 10-point tiebreaker for the third set 10-6.

The Bucs continued their opening day with another 5-0 win in the afternoon over Temple University. Olivares paired with Ahlgren to take the doubles match 6-3, 6-0 against Matt Struble and Nathan Spunda.

In singles, senior Felix Insaurralde (Asuncion, Paraguay), Travis Sandlant and Predrag Burmazovic (Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro) cruised through their first singles matches of the season. Insaurralde defeated Pavlos Stephanides 6-0, 6-2 in the No. 1 position, while Sandlant defeated Eduardo Saavedra 6-1, 6-0 in the No. 2 position. In the fourth position Predrag Burmazovic eased past his opponent Kris Celtnieks winning 6-0, 6-1.

Lisandro Picardo won his second match of the day in the No. 3 position defeating Gonzalo De Villa 6-3, 6-2.

"They looked pretty solid today overall. I still think there is a lot of room to improve but against the teams we played today we did a pretty good job," said head coach Yaser Zaatini. "We are nowhere close to peaking and we play VCU tomorrow, that match will give us a good idea of where we are at."

Continuing play tomorrow on day 3 of the VCU 4x1 Invitational the Bucs will play Georgetown at 10 a.m. before taking on No. 14 Virginia Commonwealth at 2 p.m.

ETSU 5, ECU 0

Singles

No. 1- Enrique Olivares (ETSU) def. Aleksey Kochetov 6-1, 6-2

No. 2- Sebastian Serrano (ETSU) def. Henrique Viana 6-0, 6-1

No. 3- Lisandro Picardo (ETSU) def. Bryan Oakley 6-2, 6-2

No. 4- Daniel Isaza (ETSU) def. Samuel McSpadden 6-1, 4-6, 10-6

Doubles

Sandlant/Ahlgren (ETSU) def. Walters/Peeler 6-2, 6-3

ETSU 5, TEMPLE 0
Singles

No. 1- Felix Insaurralde def. Pavlos Stephanides 6-0, 6-2

No. 2- Travis Sandlant def. Eduardo Saavedra 6-1, 6-0

No. 3- Lisandro Picardo def. Gonzalo De Villa 6-3, 6-2

No. 4- Predrag Burmazovic def. Kris Celtnieks 6-0, 6-1

Doubles

Olivares/Ahlgren def. Struble/Spunda 6-3, 6-0