| SPORTS
| OCTOBER 4, 2005
Tennis
Women begin tourney, men still in
Men’s team has 4 singles,
1 doubles team remaining in ITA Regional tournament.
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| The Shorthorn: Manikandan Sachidanandan |
| Junior Marissa Brown prepares
to return a ball during practice Wednesday in the Tennis
Center. Brown participates in the Intercollegiate Tennis
Association Regionals beginning today. |
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By Kevin
Bueker
The Shorthorn Sports Editor
The UTA men’s tennis team began playing at the ITA Regionals
in College Station on Thursday while the women start today.
With junior transfer Manuel Gonzalez returning from a wrist injury,
the men opened the tournament with a full roster for the first time
this year.
After day one, the men had four singles players and a doubles team
still competing.
Senior Sandy Farquharson, who earned the No. 11 seed in the 128-man
singles draw, and sophomore Diego Mattar remain alive in the main
draw. After a first round bye, Farquharson defeated Louisiana-Lafayette’s
Shawn Ellison 6-4, 7-6. Mattar beat Rodrigo Gabriel of Rice 7-6,
6-2 in the second round after a bye.
“Sandy and Diego definitely met the expectations I had for
them going in,” men’s coach Diego Benitez said.
After defeating the No. 30 player in the nation last week, Benitez
said he has especially high hopes for Farquharson.
“I’m expecting him to step up,” he said. “He
has a lot of confidence and he’s really in a groove.”
After losing in the opening round, seniors Neils Buksik and Ian
Vazquez will continue today in the consolation backdraw.
Sophomore Alberto Agis won his opening match against UT-Pan American’s
Rechman Esmail before losing to Baylor’s Matt Brown.
After beating Kudzai Chividza of Prairie View A&M, junior Daniel
Omana lost to TCU’s Jacopo Tezza, 6-4, 6-4.
Gonzalez won his first UTA match against Nicholas Porter of UT-Pan
American before dropping his second match to SMU’s Federico
Murgier.
Agis and Gonzalez are done competing, while Omana will play again
today with Farquharson in a doubles match after defeating Adam Becker
and Hetori Chaves of UT-San Antonio, 8-2.
Agis and Mattar also paired up in a loss to Rice’s Ralph Knupfer
and Filip Zivojinovic, and Buksik and Gonzalez lost a doubles match
to Robert Gallman and Andrew Ulrich of TCU.
The women will begin today with four singles matches. Marissa Brown
opens in the qualifying 64-player draw, and Klara Jagosova, Monika
Peciulionyte and Anete Rozkalne play in the main draw.
Head coach Christian Wassmer said the team enters the tournament
with several goals.
“We’re trying to have a good overall showing,”
he said. “If three or four of our players do really well,
then we can make a valid case for a [spring] ranking.”
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