Marquette Wraps Up Play At ITA Regional Tournament

Oct. 20, 2007

Minneapolis, Minn. - Playing against some of the top competition the region has to offer, the Marquette University men's tennis team wrapped up play at the Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Midwest Region IV Tournament, hosted by the University of Minnesota, Saturday afternoon.

"We had a lot of opportunities against some quality opponents to earn wins, but just weren't able to come out on top," head coach Steve Rodecap said. "I thought the guys played pretty well, but we just couldn't come up with the break we needed to gain some momentum."

Sophomore Niko Boulieris, the Golden Eagle to advance the furthest in the qualifying draw, saw his run come to an end with a 6-1, 7-5 loss to David Anderson of Notre Dame in the opening match of the main flight. Boulieris concluded the weekend with three victories, all of which came against opponents from the Big Ten.

Sophomore Mark Rutherford opened the tournament with a victory before falling to the No. 7 seed, Alejandro Calligari of Louisville in the qualifying draw. Junior Stephen Shao and several other teammates didn't receive any favors from the tournament selection committee. Shao, who faced the top seed (Eduardo Pavia) in the opening round, was one of three MU players matched up with a seeded player.

Junior Trent Hagan and sophomore Dusan Medan, who were placed in the main draw, both dropped their respective opening matchups to ranked foes. Senior Brett Binkley also came up short in his first match, falling to Ben Hartman of DePaul in qualifying action.

Doubles play didn't result in any kind of break for the Golden Eagles. Three of the four tandems faced seeded squads in the first round and only the duo of Rutherford and Binkley was able to post a victory. Rutherford was able to gain a measure of revenge against Calligari, claiming an 8-4 win over the Cardinal squad that also included Ben Clos.