April 18, 2006

ST. LEO, Fl. - The Marquette men's tennis team closed out their regular season with a win on the road defeating St. Leo, 7-0. The win extends their record to 15-8 on the season and 4-1 in Big East play.

"We got to 15 wins and that's the first time since 1993-94 when Marquette had 16 wins," head coach Steve Rodecap said. "We used today as another match to get us out in the heat and get us ready for Fridays match against Rutgers."

Marquette captured the early 1-0 lead, by winning at all three doubles positions. The senior duo of Eigis Vedrickas and Ian Kawas took care of St. Leo's Neil Watson and Mike DiGiacomo, 8-3. Trent Hagan and Stephen Shao defeated Thomas Haller and David Farinez at no. 2, 8-6, and Eric Fleming and Pete Van Lieshout beat the tandem of Greg Strange and Mohammed Saif Noorsumar, 8-6.

"I thought we played at the level we needed to in order to get the job done," assistant coach Raj Gil said. "We got the doubles out of the way. In singles, the first four matches off the court were pretty routine. We did a good job of taking care of business and we needed it to get prepared for Rutgers on Friday."

The Golden Eagles got quick wins from Hagan, Kawas and Shao at two thru four. Fleming played at no. 5 and defeated Saif Noorsumar in a match tiebreaker, 2-6, 6-1, 10-4. Greg Sirotek beat Mike Del Priore, 6-0, 6-2.

Vedrickas started out slow at no. 1 but recovered in the second set and won the tiebreaker to take down Haller, 1-6, 6-4, 10-4.

"Eigis wasn't playing great and managed to pick up his level of play at the end of the second set," Gil said. "It was good for him to get a win like that."

The team will spend the remainder of the week in Florida, preparing for their 9 a.m. Friday match up with Rutgers in the BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIPS hosted by the University of South Florida.

-COMPLETE RESULTS-

Doubles
No. 1-Vedrickas/Kawas (MU) def. Watson/DiGiacomo (St. Leo) 8-3
No. 2-Hagan/Shao (MU) def. Farinez/Haller (St. Leo) 8-6
No. 3-Fleming/Van Lieshout (MU) def Noorsumar/Strange (St. Leo) 8-6

Singles
No. 1-Eigis Vedrickas (MU) def. Thomas Haller (St. Leo) 1-6, 6-4, 10-4
No. 2-Trent Hagan (MU) def. Neil Watson (St. Leo) 6-2, 6-1
No. 3-Ian Kawas (MU) def. David Farinez (St. Leo) 6-3, 6-1
No. 4-Stephen Shao (MU) def. Greg Strange (St. Leo) 6-0, 6-3
No. 5-Eric Fleming (MU) def. Mohammed Saif Noorsumar (St. Leo) 2-6, 6-1, 10-4
No. 6-Greg Sirotek (MU) def. Mike Del Priore (St. Leo) 6-0, 6-2

Marquette Golden Eagles Men's Tennis

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