Huskers End First Day of ITA Championships

Tulsa, Okla. - The Nebraska men's tennis team had six representitives in the first round of the main draw singles at the Wilson/ITA Regional Tennis Championships held at the Michael D. Case Center at Tulsa University, Oct. 21.

Juniors Adrian Szatmary and James Clow, along with sophomore Vincent Pietro all claimed victories in the first round of 64.

Szatmary, who entered competition seeded 13th, defeated Tiago Espirito Santo of Witchita State, 7-6 (7), 6-4, moving on to play Ryan Thomas of Oklahoma.  Szatmary beat Thomas 6-0, 6-1.  In the round of 16, Szatmary is scheduled to play Ross Cunningham of Tulsa.  

Clow beat Moti Eisikovits of Wichita State in straight sets, 7-5, 6-0.  He advanced to beat Blake Strode of Arkansas, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4.  Clow moved into the third round and is set to play Aleksander Charpantidis of Tulsa.

Pietro, a sophomore transfer, defeated Jason Wright of Oklahoma State, 6-3, 7-5, but lost to Maor Zirkin of Drake in the second round, 6-1, 6-0.

Senior Jerry Posch was seeded 11th, but was knocked off by Cale Planck of Oklahoma, 6-4, 6-4.  Posch bounced back to beat Rodrigo Borges of Missouri State, 6-2, 6-4, in the backdraw singles.  He advances to play Lucques Maasdorp of Tulsa in the round of 16. 

Sophomore Karl Jones was defeated by ninth-seeded Artsem Burmistrau of Oklahoma State, 6-1, 6-3, and freshman Ayhan Oray was defeated by Goran Vujaklija of Wichita State.  In the backdraw singles, Jones lost to Andy Connelly of Tulsa, 6-1, 6-2, while Oray defeated Chris Welnetz of St. Louis and is set to play Eduardo Autran of Arkansas-Little Rock in the second round.

In doubles action, all three of NU's tandems lost in the first round.  Jones and Posch were defeated by Oklahoma's duo of  Tommy Garrison and Matt Long, 8-1.  Oray and Pietro lost to Ricardo Soriano and Lucques Maasdrop of Tulsa, 8-3.  Sixth-seeded Clow and Szatmary dropped their match to Will Gray and Federico Soriano of Tulsa, 8-5. 

This tournament features the top players from Division I central region schools, including Arkansas-Little Rock, Creighton, Drake, Illinois State, Missouri State, UMKC, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Oral Roberts, Saint Louis, Southern Illinois, South Dakota State and Wichita State.  The singles finalists and the doubles champion from the event will earn spots in the Nov. 3-6 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championsihps hosted by Ohio State at the Raquet Club of Columbus in Columbus, Ohio.

Seventeen Wilson/ITA Regional Championships for NCAA Division I men and women are taking place over these last two weekends of October at campuses throughout the country.