Men's Tennis Falls to DePaul

Feb. 10, 2007

MILWAUKEE, Wis. - In their first BIG EAST dual of the season, the Marquette men's tennis team was unable to pull out a victory against #58 DePaul, losing 4-3, at the Helfaer Tennis Stadium.

The Blue Demons came out aggressive in doubles, earning the early point. Stephen Shao and Niko Boulieris had a convincing win over Danny Wilson and Vanja Grgec at the third spot, 8-1 but Marquette could not close out at one or two.

"I thought we played tentative in doubles," head coach Steve Rodecap said. "But we kept our heads up throughout the day and came back into the match. We are getting better at continuing to fight. I thought both Brett (Binkley) and (Stephen) Shao played really well in both doubles and singles. They have struggled early in the season but really stepped up today."

The chance of victory looked grim for the Golden Eagles early in singles play as DePaul earned first set wins at five of the six spots. The momentum began to shift for Marquette when Mark Rutherford defeated Jose Moncada, 6-3, 6-4. Brett Binkley, Greg Sirotek, Boulieris and Shao all fought back in the second set to force a third.

With the score tied up at three all, the match was determined at no. 2, where Shao came up short against Austin Doerner, 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-3, giving DePaul the deciding point.

"Today was just a great college tennis match," Rodecap said. "Unfortunately, we were the ones that came up short in the end but give DePaul a lot of credit because they were able to close it out."

With the loss, the Golden Eagles drop to 2-3 on the season while DePaul is 5-2. Marquette will be back in action tomorrow against Chicago State at the Helfaer Tennis Stadium at 1 p.m.

-COMPLETE RESULTS-

Singles

No. 1- George Wang (DP) def. Trent Hagan (MU) 6-1, 6-0
No. 2- Austin Doerner (DP) def. Stephen Shao (MU) 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-3
No. 3- Mark Rutherford (MU) def. Jose Moncada (DP) 6-3, 6-4
No. 4- Brett Binkley (MU) def. Vanja Gregec (DP) 4-6, 6-1, 6-3
No. 5- Niko Boulieris (MU) def. Alasdair Graetz (DP) 6-7 (8), 7-6 (5), 6-4
No. 6- Jack Komar (DP) def. Greg Sirotek (MU) 6-0, 4-6, 7-5

Doubles

No. 1- Doerner/Moncada (DP) def. Binkley/Rutherford (MU) 8-6
No. 2- Wang/Graetz (DP) def. Hagan/Van Lieshout (MU) 8-5
No. 3- Shao/Boulieris (MU) def. Wilson/Grgec (DP) 8-1