JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Oct. 12, 2007) - The ETSU men's tennis team split up for this weekend's competition with a group traveling to South Carolina for the USC Fall Invitational while another group competed at the UNF Invitational.

Competing in the UNF Invitational Daniel Isaza (Medellin, Colombia) had a first round bye before falling to Florida Atlantic's Marc Abdelnour in the Flight A bracket, 7-5, 6-1 in the round of 16. Also competing in the Flight A bracket senior Lisandro Picardo (Mar del Plata, Argentina) defeated Oregon's Doug Mayeda, 6-4, 7-5 to advance to Saturday's quarterfinal round.

In the Flight B draw, newcomer Sergio Velez (Medellin, Colombia) also had a first round bye before he went on to defeat Troy's Marko Zivkovic, 6-0, 6-2. He will face the winner of the match between Florida Atlantic's Corey Smith and Carl Abalos of Samford.

In doubles the duo of Picardo and Isaza defeated Florida Atlantic's Marc Abdelnour and Joe Cadogan, 8-6 to advance to Saturday's semifinal match.

"We had a really good day here today. Even though he lost, Daniel played better than I've seen him play. He still has some match issues but his play is improving. Overall, it's been a good week. We have come into a completely different environment playing here at sea level. The courts here are very slow and I think it just took some adjusting but I think that the group is playing well," said head coach Yaser Zaatini.

At the South Carolina Invitational senior Oscar Posada (Valencia, Venezuela) picked up his first victory of the season as he defeated Bruno Seves of South Carolina-Aiken, 6-1, 6-2 in the A-1 singles bracket. He will face David Simon of Louisville in Saturday's Round of 16.

Competing in the A-2 bracket, Predrag Burmazovic (Belgrade, Serbia) defeated Arsel Kumdereli of UNC-Greensboro, 6-4, 6-3 in the Round of 32. He will square off with David Wolff of South Carolina on Saturday.

In doubles action Posada and Alex Ahlgren (Tyreso, Sweden) teamed up to defeat top-seeded Miguel Muguruza and Eliott Potvin of Georgia Tech, 8-6 before dropping Winthrop's duo of Vinicius Bortolatto and Rodrigo Santos, 8-5 to advance to the semifinal round of the A-1 doubles flight. They will face Andrew Brasseaux and Charles Sator of Wake Forest on Saturday.

"It was a good day overall. Predrag had a little bit of a rocky start this morning because it was only about 48 degrees but he was able to pull it together and win a good match. Oscar played very well and in doubles he and Alex had a great match. They beat the top seed and then pulled off a great win over Winthrop. I'm just looking forward to tomorrow to see how they do," said assistant coach Johan Dorfh.

Action will continue Saturday at both tournaments. For all ETSU men's tennis action visit www.ETSUBucs.com.

UNF Invitational

Flight A - Marc Abdelnour (FAU) def. Daniel Isaza (ETSU) 7-5, 6-1

Flight A - Lisandro Picardo (ETSU) def. Doug Mayeda (Oregon) 6-4, 7-5

Flight B - Sergio Velez (ETSU) def. Marco Zivkovic (Troy) 6-0, 6-2

Flight A doubles - Picardo/Isaza (ETSU) def. Abdelnour/Cadogan (FAU) 8-6

USC Invitational

Flight A1 - Oscar Posada (ETSU) def. Bruno Seves (USC-AK) 6-1, 6-2

Flight A2 - Predrag Burmazovic (ETSU) def. Arsel Kumdereli (UNCG) 6-4, 6-3

Flight A1 doubles - Posada/Ahlgren (ETSU) def. Muguruza/Potvin (GTU) 8-6

Flight A1 doubles - Posada/Ahlgren (ETSU) def. Bortolatto/Santos (WU) 8-5