Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Athletics
VCU (NCAA Tournament 1st Round)
Red Raiders Advance at the NCAA Tennis Championships
May 11, 2007 | Men's Tennis
May 11, 2007
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Avenging a 4-1 loss earlier in the season, No. 36 Texas Tech took down No. 24 Virginia Commonwealth 4-1 to advance to the second round of the 2007 NCAA Tennis Championships. The men's tennis team will play No. 9 UCLA today, May 12, at 3 p.m. (PST).
"I can't really begin to describe how excited and proud I am of this team," exclaimed Head Coach Tim Siegel. "As a coach, you always hope you'll play your best tennis at the end of the year, and this was without question our best total team effort. It's absolutely an incredible feeling to beat a team this good, and to do it in such a close and exciting match."
Tech's doubles once again pulled themselves out of an early deficit against the favored VCU Rams. The No. 33 pair of Bojan Szumanski and Christian Rojmar were unable to come up with a win as they were the first to fall to VCU's No. 35 senior duo of Arnaud Le Cloerec and Petr Olsak, 8-5.
In what could possibly have been their last collegiate doubles match of their careers, seniors Teddy DiBlasi and Dimitrio Martinez pushed themselves past VCU winning 8-6, tying the score up at one all.
The doubles point once again rested on the shoulders of the Red Raider sophomore duo of Michael Breler and Sinisa Markovic. After being down for the duration of the match, the two were able to capitalize on the Ram's Emil Lindgren and Sebastian Ripoll, walking away with the 8-6 win. The two improve to 8-7 on the season and are now 4-1 in clinching doubles victories.
The Rams were the first to strike in singles, with Breler falling 6-0, 6-1 at No. 4 to VCU's Sergi Arumi. Markovic notched another in the win column sinking in Tech's second point 6-1, 6-4 over Lindgren. He advances to 25-9, 16-3 playing in the No. 3 singles position.
Moving in with the Raiders third point was the No. 5 player Christian Rojmar defeating Damien Lacombe 7-6, 6-4. Needing just one point to clinch the match, Tech's fate rested on the No. 1, 2 or 6 courts.
After winning the first set 6-4, Tech's Szumanski and VCU's Olsak sat tied six all in the second set. With the lead volleying back and forth between the two, Szumanski served a 9-7 tiebreaker win and advanced his team to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
"At match point, I was a little nervous as the sun was in my face and I was just trying to stay focused knowing the match was on the line and I didn't want to let my team down," said Szumanski. He said he feels the win has helped prepare the team for their next opponent. "Having beat OSU earlier this year, which is also a top-10 team, I definitely feel the team moral is very high and everyone is playing really good right now."
The Red Raiders improve to 14-9 this season, 9-8 against ranked opponents. The host UCLA has one of the most impressive line-ups of any opponent Tech has seen as they sit 19-3 overall. The Bruins have three ranked singles players, including No. 4 junior Benjamin Kohloeffel, and a No. 14 ranked doubles pair of Phillip Gruendler and Kohloeffel.
"I'm excited about the opportunity to play UCLA," said Siegel. "To play them at their place is going to be a challenge, but I think we have done really well with challenges this year. They're definitely better than their ranking, and we are going to go out there and give it everything we've got and hopefully we'll walk away with the upset."
Live stats are available via the team's Web site, in addition daily updates and team photos. For more information, visit www.texastech.com.
#36 Texas Tech, 4
#24 Virginia Commonwealth, 1
Los Angeles, Calif.
Doubles: 1, 3, 2*
1. LeCloerec/Olsak (VCU) def. Rojmar/Szumanski (TTU), 8-5
2. Breler/Markovic (TTU) def. Lindgren/Ripoll (VCU), 8-6
3. DiBlasi/Martinez (TTU) def. Arumi/Deridder (VCU), 8-6
Singles: 4, 3, 5, 1*
1. Bojan Szumanski (TTU) def. Petr Olsak (VCU), 6-4, 7-6(7)
2. Dimitrio Martinez (TTU) vs. Arnaud LeCloerec (VCU), 4-6, 6-1, 3-4 DNF
3. Sinisa Markovic (TTU) def. Emil Lindgren (VCU), 6-1, 6-4
4. Sergi Arumi (VCU) def. Michael Breler (TTU), 6-0, 6-1
5. Christian Rojmar (TTU) def. Damien Lacombe (VCU), 7-6(5), 6-4
6. Milos Kustudija (TTU) vs. Alex Israel (VCU), 5-7, 1-5 DNF
Players Mentioned
