Men's Tennis Advances To NCAA 2nd Round

Athens, Ga.--For the first time all season, the No. 35 Auburn men’s tennis team was able to overcome losing the doubles point and earn the match win as the Tigers defeated No. 28 Wake Forest, 4-3, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.

With the win, Auburn moves on to the second round and will play the fifth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs, a 4-0 winner over Radford. The second round match will begin at 2 p.m. ET at the Dan Magill Tennis Center in Athens, Ga. and will be the 50th meeting between the two schools with the Bulldogs holding a commanding 45-4 advantage.

Auburn advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the 11th time in the program’s history. The Tigers are now 18-15 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and hold a 4-3 advantage in the series against Wake Forest.

“We just battled,” said Auburn head coach Eric Shore. “I thought we played well in doubles, but it was close again and we lost a very close doubles point. We didn’t hang our head and just battled and won a close one.”

After losing six of their last seven matches of the season, the win over the Demon Deacons ends a rough stretch of the season in which the Tigers lost four 4-3 matches. The win also marks just the third 4-3 win of the season for Auburn.

“We were due, we’ve lost a number of those this year and we just kept battling and had a little bit more in the tank at the end,” said Shore. “It was encouraging, that’s for sure.”

Wake Forest jumped to the early lead in the match by winning No. 1 and 3 doubles. The loss of the doubles point put Auburn in a tough spot as it entered the match with a 0-10 record when losing the early point. The last time the Tigers won a match after losing doubles was on April 8, 2007 when Auburn pulled out a 4-3 win over LSU.

Juniors Marsoun and Krnjetin won the crucial singles points down the stretch to give Auburn the win. With Wake Forest holding a 3-2 lead, one point away from the win, Marsoun took his No. 3 singles match to three sets to earn the 2-6, 7-6 (0), 7-5 win over Adamski to tie the match at 3-3.

Krnjetin followed up with a three-set thriller of his own in No. 5 singles, clinching the match win for Auburn by defeating Jonathan Wolff, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2.

Tennis Match Results
Auburn vs Wake Forest
May 10, 2008 at Athens, Ga.

#35 Auburn 4, #28 Wake Forest 3

Singles competition
1. #46 Cory Parr (WAKE) def. #27 Alexey Tsyrenov (AU) 6-3, 6-3
2. #87 Tim Puetz (AU) def. #68 Steven Forman (WAKE) 6-2, 6-4
3. Lukas Marsoun (AU) def. Mariusz Adamski (WAKE) 2-6, 7-6 (7-0), 7-5
4. Pawel Dilaj (AU) def. Jason Morganstern (WAKE) 6-4, 6-3
5. Milan Krnjetin (AU) def. Jonathan Wolff (WAKE) 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2
6. Andrew Brasseaux (WAKE) def. Nick Maurillo (AU) 6-4, 7-5

Doubles competition
1. #7 Cory Parr/Steven Forman (WAKE) def. Alexey Tsyrenov/Terence Nugent (AU) 8-4
2. Mariusz Adamski/Carlos Salmon (WAKE) def. Tim Puetz/Pawel Dilaj (AU) 8-6
3. Jason Morganstern/Jonathan Wolff (WAKE) vs. Lukas Marsoun/Milan Krnjetin (AU) 7-8, unfinished