Four Owls Advance to Round of 32 at ITA Regional
10/20/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Oct. 20, 2005
College Station -
Third-seeded Robert Searle and number-12 seed Tony Haerle advanced to the third round of singles Thursday to lead Rice's men on the first day of the Wilson ITA Southwest Regional at Texas A&M.
Searle had a first-round bye and downed Oliver Steil of Texas-Pan American in the second round, 6-2, 6-2. Haerle, who also had a bye in the opening round, made quick work of Texas Southern's Ivan Avila in the second round, winning 6-1, 6-1 to advance.
Searle and Haerle later teamed up to beat TCU's Robert Gallman and Andrew Ulrich 8-5 in round two of doubles competition.
Other second-round singles wins for the Owls came from Ralph Knupfer and Filip Zivojinovic. Knupfer beat Louisiana-Lafayette's Robin Ley 6-4, 6-2 in the opener and then upset number-13 seed Brett Joelson of Texas A&M 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. Zivojinovic was a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Erhart Asaad in the first round and rolled to a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Texas Tech's Dimitrio Martinez to advance to round three, where he will face teammate Knupfer.
First-round wins in singles play went to Rodrigo Gabriel, a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victor over Texas Tech's Michael Breier; Hoony Shin, a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Niels Buksik of Texas-Arlington; and Jason Mok, who beat Texas Tech's Jay Wofford 6-2, 6-0. Gabriel, Shin and Mok lost in the second round, with Mok going three sets in a 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 loss to seventh-ranked Bryan Wooten of Texas A&M.
Doubles action included first-round wins for Gabriel and Mok, who beat Centenary's Russ Patrick and Josh Pinto 8-3, and Knupfer and Zivojinovic, who took an 8-1 decision from Texas-Arlington's Alberto Agis and Diego Mattar.
The singles finalists and doubles champion from this event will earn spots in the November 3-6 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships hosted by The Ohio State University at the Racquet Club of Columbus.
Play continues through Sunday at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center on the Texas A&M campus.
Players Mentioned
