Marquette Completes First Day At Texas Invitational

Nov. 2, 2007

Milwaukee - Each of the three Marquette University men's tennis players competing at the 2007 Texas Invitational posted singles victories on the opening day of the event Friday afternoon.

Competing in the main draw, junior Stephen Shao earned a first round bye before downing Brent Werbeck of Boise State in the round of 32, 7-6, 6-4. Shao will face No. 1 seed Dimitar Kutrovsky of host Texas Saturday morning for a berth in the quarterfinals.

"Stephen played some of the best tennis I have seen him play," head coach Steve Rodecap said. "In the past we have come to this tournament and not been able to stay in matches. Today we were able to not only stay in them, but earn some wins as well."

Sophomore Mark Rutherford rallied for an opening round 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Boris Barrios of St. Edwards, but fell to Hubert Chodkiewicz of Texas 6-3, 7-5 in his second match of the day.

Senior Brett Binkley claimed a win over Nenad Maric of UT-San Antonio, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, but also fell to a member of the host school. Jonah Kane-West defeated Binkley 6-4, 6-3 in the round of 16.

Binkley and Rutherford teamed up for an 8-1 victory in the main doubles draw, downing a familiar opponent in Ball State's tandem of Bret Berryman and Shaun Bussert. While the matchup was the first of the season between the two competing teams, both programs have attended several of the same tournaments this fall.