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Tulsa, Okla. - The Nebraska men's tennis team saw great success Thursday at the USTA/ITA Central Region Tournament in qualifying singles play at the Headington Family Tennis Center. Two Huskers play in the third round of the tournament Friday morning to determine if they will advance to the main draw.
NU's Scott Elsass used a bye in the first round to his advantage and fought past his first opponent Henrique Pereira of South Dakota 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. Newcomer Chris Hobgarski also began with a bye but followed by a sweep over Brooks Kendall of UMKC 6-2, 6-4. Both Elsass and Hobgarski are top seeds in the qualifying singles bracket and are doing the Big Red proud in their first day of play.
Nebraska's Charlie Shin also competed in qualifying singles but unfortunately fell short in his second round of play. Shin began with a win over Western Illinois' Colin Adams 6-1, 6-0 followed by his defeat in a tough two matches against UMKC's Andrey Smimov 6-4, 7-6 fighting back in the second match. Court Clark was defeated in his first round of play against Vihn Pham of UMKC 6-3, 6-4.
In main draw singles play the Husker's Marc Herrmann, Dusty Boyer, Andrew Dzulynsky, Bradford Zitsch, Linus Erhart, and Vasileios Stavropoulos will begin competing. Herrmann will face Santiago Munoz of Arkansas at 8 a.m. along with No. 6 seeded Dusty Boyer against Jovan Pavic also from Arkansas. Dzulynksy will be competing against a qualifier from the qualifying singles bracket. Zitsch will play Jonny Rigby of SIU/Carbondale, the second newcomer, Erhart, against Benn Lott of Drake, Vasileios will also play a qualifier from the qualifying singles bracket.
Main draw doubles will feature four representative duos from the Nebraska lineup. Boyer and Zitsch will begin against Minnesota's Saxon and Lynn. Shin and Dzulynsky will face Tulsa's Kirby and Bautista, Erhart and Elsass against Hutchinson and Gaffigan of SIU Edwards, and the final pair, Hobgarski and Herrmann, will take on Castellano and Psarros of UMKC. These teams are ready to put up a fight in doubles play.
Coaches Kerry McDermott and Fungai Tongoona are excited for the rest of this weekend and to have two of four players advance to the third round in qualifying singles play hopefully earning a spot in the main draw on Friday.