Eagles Cruise on Opening Day of Georgia Southern Invitational
9/12/2009 4:14:00 AM | Men's Tennis
STATESBORO, GA - The Georgia Southern men's tennis team tallied six victories on the opening day of the Georgia Southern Invitational. The doubles tandems of Gregory Bekkers and Matthijs Verdam and Edio Castanhel and Alain Garrido advanced to the championship rounds of A and B doubles, respectively.
"Our team's fitness was really good which helped us pull out some of our close matches,” said head coach Justin Miles. “Tactically we need to work on a couple of things, but for the most part, the first day of our tournament was a success."
Doubles action opened the tournament as Bekkers (Antwerp, Belgium) and Verdam (Helvrsersum, The Netherlands) took the court for the first time as a tandem. The Eagle duo dropped Kennesaw State's Tyler Mills and Elliott Kahler 8-6 before facing Kurt Gattiker and Moritz Buerchner of North Florida. Bekkers and Verdam efeated the Ospreys pair, 9-7. Bekkers and Verdam will face Armstrong Atlantic's Mikk Irdoja and Rafael Array in the championship of 'A' doubles on Sunday.
In 'B' doubles, the sophomore pair of Edio Castanhel (Criciuma, Brazil) and Alain Garrido (Vigo, Spain) earned a first-round bye and ousted conference foes Derek Dickey and Tripp Larkin of the The Citadel, 8-2. The victory advanced the Eagle tandem to the championships on Sunday where it will take on Kennesaw's Ryan Bouttell and Gakalp Ozdemir.
Singles action for Georgia Southern also saw much success as Bekkers and Garrido both advanced in flight 'A'. Bekkers defeated Graham Edgar of North Florida in straight sets, 7-5, 6-1,while Garrido downed Kennesaw's Mills, 6-3, 7-6 (5).
In singles 'B', Verdam earned a first round bye and will face Dylan Higgins of Kennesaw State who defeated Alex Yuille in three sets. Yuille grabbed the first set, 6-3, but dropped the final two, 1-6, 3-6 to Higgins. Teammate Sebastian Felt also captured his first victory in singles as an Eagle with a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over Jeremiah Dye of The Citadel. Felt will face teammate Castanhel in singles action on Saturday of flight 'B'.
Play will commence tomorrow with the second day of the tournament with singles. Georgia Southern will take the court at 8 a.m. The first round of consolation play will also take place on Saturday.
"Our team's fitness was really good which helped us pull out some of our close matches,” said head coach Justin Miles. “Tactically we need to work on a couple of things, but for the most part, the first day of our tournament was a success."
Doubles action opened the tournament as Bekkers (Antwerp, Belgium) and Verdam (Helvrsersum, The Netherlands) took the court for the first time as a tandem. The Eagle duo dropped Kennesaw State's Tyler Mills and Elliott Kahler 8-6 before facing Kurt Gattiker and Moritz Buerchner of North Florida. Bekkers and Verdam efeated the Ospreys pair, 9-7. Bekkers and Verdam will face Armstrong Atlantic's Mikk Irdoja and Rafael Array in the championship of 'A' doubles on Sunday.
In 'B' doubles, the sophomore pair of Edio Castanhel (Criciuma, Brazil) and Alain Garrido (Vigo, Spain) earned a first-round bye and ousted conference foes Derek Dickey and Tripp Larkin of the The Citadel, 8-2. The victory advanced the Eagle tandem to the championships on Sunday where it will take on Kennesaw's Ryan Bouttell and Gakalp Ozdemir.
Singles action for Georgia Southern also saw much success as Bekkers and Garrido both advanced in flight 'A'. Bekkers defeated Graham Edgar of North Florida in straight sets, 7-5, 6-1,while Garrido downed Kennesaw's Mills, 6-3, 7-6 (5).
In singles 'B', Verdam earned a first round bye and will face Dylan Higgins of Kennesaw State who defeated Alex Yuille in three sets. Yuille grabbed the first set, 6-3, but dropped the final two, 1-6, 3-6 to Higgins. Teammate Sebastian Felt also captured his first victory in singles as an Eagle with a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over Jeremiah Dye of The Citadel. Felt will face teammate Castanhel in singles action on Saturday of flight 'B'.
Play will commence tomorrow with the second day of the tournament with singles. Georgia Southern will take the court at 8 a.m. The first round of consolation play will also take place on Saturday.
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