Huskers Have a Great Showing at Regionals, But Come Up Short

Wichita, Kan. -- Senior Lance Mills and junior Jacek Wolicki made it to the third round of the ITA Mid-American Region V Singles Championship this weekend, but could not pull out a victory against a field of sixteen teams that included three ranked opponents. The doubles team of Fungai Tongoona/Jose Hernan also made it to the third round of the doubles championship, before losing to the No. 1 doubles team in the tournament.

In the singles main draw, Wolicki defeated Alejandro Tejerina of Tulsa, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, and Felipe Montenegro of Drake, 6-3, 6-0, in the first and second round, respectively, before losing to Fran Krepelka of Oklahoma State, 0-5. Wolicki retired early during his match against Krepelka.

Mills, who was coming off a victory at the Drake Invitational last week, defeated Shri Sudhakar of Tulsa, 6-4, 6-2, in the first round, and Jiri Jezek of Oklahoma State, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5. During his third round match against Mirko Jovanovic of Colorado, Mills injured himself while playing and lost the match, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 5-7.

Three other Huskers saw action in the singles main draw as well. Freshmen Jose Hernan lost to Bryan Endress-Fox of Drake, 7-5, 5-7, 3-6, and Joel Reckewey fell to John Hixon of Oral Roberts, 4-6, 4-6. Both losses occurred in the first round of play. Senior Fungai Tongoona, who advanced through the qualifying round on Thursday with two wins, defeated Paul Craigen of Bradley, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4, in the first round, before he lost to Maciej Dilaj of Colorado, 2-6, 1-6, in the second round.

In the doubles main draw, the team of Mills/Wolicki exited the championship early with a first round loss to Pawel Sebastyanski/Alejandro Tejerina of Tulsa, 8-9 (3). Meanwhile, the team of Tongoona/Hernan lasted well into the tournament. The duo won in the first and second rounds, defeating Paul Craigen/Mark Muskievicz of Bradley, 8-5, and Anthony Perkins/Aaron Endress-Fox of Drake, 8-4, respectively. In the third round, Tongoona/Hernan faced the No. 1 team of Dane McGregor/Shri Sudhakar of Tulsa, and lost 8-9 (4).

With their first round losses in the singles draw, Hernan and Reckewey continued competing in the singles back draw. Reckewey lost to Matt McClure of Drake by default. Hernan, however, made it to the championships before withdrawing from the tournament early.

The Huskers were not set to play again until Nov. 2-4 at the University of Oregon Invitational, however, Head Coach Kerry McDermott will know early this week if the Huskers will receive an invitation to compete at a team qualifier in Tulsa next weekend. The four best teams are invited to the tournament.