May 11, 2007
Athens, Ga. - The No. 29 Auburn men's tennis team picked up a first round win at the NCAA Tournament on Friday, defeating No. 33 Georgia State, 4-0. The Tigers will meet the winner of top-seeded Georgia vs. Fairleigh Dickenson on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
Auburn moved to 15-9, while Georgia State dropped to 19-5.
"We knew going in that this was going to be a tough match today," head coach Eric Shore said. "It was nice to get the doubles point and I think that gave us some momentum going into singles, where Georgia State was its strongest. The heat was definitely a factor for both teams today. We won 4-0, but it was really a close match."
The senior doubles tandem of Robbert Lathouwers and Alex Schweizer, ranked 39th, got the ball rolling with an 8-6 victory over Anze Cevka and Martin Stiegwardt. The Tigers finished off the Panthers on court two as Terence Nugent and Pawel Dilaj, paired up to defeat Nejc Podkrajsek and Mattias Skold, 8-4. With the doubles point in hand, Auburn carried over its momentum in singles play.
Earning just his fourth win of the year at No. 6 singles, Nugent cruised past Daniel Balog, 6-3, 6-1, to put Auburn up 2-0. Dilaj followed suit on court five with a 7-6, 7-6, win over Cevka. The Tigers would need one point to secure the win and Lukas Marsoun gave them just that. Marsoun got past Skold, 7-5, 6-1, on court three to put a stamp on the team victory.
The first round victory marks the ninth time (10th overall in AU history) Shore has lead his Tigers team to the second round. Shore has led Auburn to eight straight NCAA Tournaments and 13 since coming to Auburn. Auburn's deepest run in the tournament has been to the quarterfinals, last accomplished in 2002, when AU knocked off East Tennessee State, Mississippi State and Washington before falling to No. 4 UCLA.
Auburn will play the winner of top-seeded Georgia vs. Fairleigh Dickenson on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. Live stats will be available on www.georgiadogs.com.
Doubles
1. #39 Robbert Lathouwers/Alex Schweizer (AU) def. Anze Cevka Martin/Stiegwardt (GSU), 8-6
2. Terence Nugent/Pawel Dilaj (AU) def. Nejc Podkrajsek/Mattias Skold (GSU), 8-4
3. Lukas Marsoun/Alexey Tsyrenov (AU) vs. Augusto Alvarado/Andrew Arango (GSU), UF (AU led, 7-5)
Order of Finish: 1,2
Singles
1. #56 Alex Schweizer (AU) vs. No. 57 Martin Stiegwardt (GSU), uf (3-6, 6-4, 1-3)
2. #39 Robbert Lathouwers (AU) vs. Nejc Podkrajsek (GSU), uf (6-3, 3-6, 3-1)
3. Lukas Marsoun (AU) def. Mattias Skold (GSU), 7-5, 6-1
4. Alexey Tsyrenov (AU) vs. Andrew Arango, uf (3-6, 6-2)
5. Pawel Dilaj (AU) def. Anze Cevka (GSU), 7-6, 7-6
6. Terence Nugent (AU) def. Daniel Balog (GSU), 6-3, 6-1
Order of Finish: 6,5,3