Saturday, May 15, 2004

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 15, 2004) - The East Tennessee State men's tennis team fell in a grueling four-hour match in a 4-1 decision to the No. 16 Texas Christian University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon. Both teams battled fiercely for the doubles point. TCU's Hector Almada and Jacopo Tezza won the first match against Diego Iglesias (Mar del Plata, Argentina) and Moisés Serrano (Bucaramanga, Columbia) 8-2 at No. 2. ETSU's Fernando Fiuri (Villa Maria, Argentina) and Felix Insaurralde (Asunción, Paraguay) quickly responded by winning the No. 3 match 8-5. Attention then centered around the crucial No. 1 slot match of ETSU's Alejandro Salazar (Arequipa, Peru) and Oscar Posada (Valencia, Venezuela) and TCU's Rafael Abreu and Fabrizio Sestini. After two hours of intense action, TCU closed out the doubles point in a 9-8(5) final score. In singles competition, TCU increased their lead to 2-0 with a win at the No. 3 slot by Sestini over Iglesias (6-2, 6-2). ETSU then tabbed their lone point of the day with Salazar's win at No. 1 (6-0, 6-3). The Horned Frogs took the next two points at the No. 4 and No. 5 slots to secure the 4-1 final. The Buccaneers finish their season with a 20-6 record, including a perfect record in the Southern Conference in both regular season and tournament play, which led them to their third NCAA appearance. TCU advances to face host University of Kentucky at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow. Kentucky defeated Butler Saturday morning by a score of 4-0 to advance. No. 13 TCU 4, No. 67 East Tennessee State 1 Doubles 1 - Abreau/Sestini (TCU) def. Salazar/Posada (ETSU) - 9-8(5) 2 - Almada/Tezza (TCU) def. Iglesias/Serrano (ETSU) - 8-2 3 - Fiuri/Insaurralde (ETSU) def. Martin/Menichini (TCU) - 8-5 Singles 1 - Alejandro Salazar (ETSU) def. Alex Menichini (TCU) - 6-0, 6-3 2 - Hector Almada (TCU) led Oscar Posada* (ETSU) - 6-2, 5-2 susp. 3 - Fabrizio Sestini (TCU) def. Diego Iglesias (ETSU) - 6-2, 6-2 4 - Jacopo Tezza (TCU) def. Fernando Fiuri (ETSU) - 6-1, 6-1 5 - Rafael Abreu (TCU) def. Moises Serrano (ETSU) - 6-3, 6-3 6 - Jacob Martin (TCU) led Felix Insauralde (ETSU) - 0-6, 6-3, 3-2 susp.