Huskers Continue Action at Georgia Tech

Atlanta - James Clow led the Nebraska men's tennis team as it continued action at the Georgia Tech Fall Invitational, Saturday, in Atlanta, Ga., at the Bill Moore Tennis Center.

Junior Adrian Szatmary advanced to the second round of the singles flight A bracket on Friday, but Saturday he was defeated by Auburn's Nick Lane 6-4, 6-4. Junior James Clow outperformed Tennesse Tech's Shunsuke Shimizu in the consolation singles flight A, in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.

"James continued to play strong," Coach Kerry McDermott said. "He came back and was strong for the consolation match. He has a match tomorrow morning and he's playing good and he feels confident. He's just a great competitor."

Sophomores Sean Coetzee and Vincent Pietro both advanced on Friday to the second round of singles flight B, but were defeated in straight sets Saturday.  Coetzee fell to Evan Dufaux of Georgia Southern, 6-3, 6-2, while Pietro was defeated by Vanderbilt's Jordan Magarik, 7-6 (6), 6-2.

Clow and Szatmary fared well the doubles flight A, winning their first match against Middle Tennesee State's duo, Rishan Kuruppu and Greg Pollack, 8-4.  The juniors fell in the next round to Tennesse's Kaden Hensel and Bobby Cameron, 8-3.

Pietro and Ayhan Oray had the most success, winning both of their matches in doubles flight B and knocking out the top seed in the second round.  In the first round, the tandem defeated Diego Flores and Neil Shine, 8-1, turning around to beat Tennessee's Kiril Tcherveniachki and David Baxendine, 8-6.

"It was a big win, and I'm really happy for them," McDermott said. "Especially for Ayhan because he's a freshman and this was Vincen'ts first tournament because he just became eligible after his transfer.  They just love to play with each other and they have a good energy between them.  Hopefully they get good wins tomorrow."

Sophomore Karl Jones was downed by Georgia Southern's Charles-Henri Trottet, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5, to knock him out of the tournament.

McDermott said he was pleased with some of the individual performances, but the Huskers still have improvements to make.

"It was not a bad day, not a great day," McDermott said. "It was a good day for a few of our guys. We're picking up and playing better every day. Hopefully we'll finsih on a high note tomorrow."