April 21, 2005

Tampa, FL - Both the St. John's men's and women's tennis teams advanced to the second round of the BIG EAST Tournament, played this morning at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL. The No. 5 seeded St. John's men beat No. 4 Georgetown, while the women, seeded No. 4, beat No. 5 West Virginia.

On the men's side, the Red Storm took the doubles point and won singles matches at the 2, 3, and 5 positions to win the match.

David Nylen and Morgan Bauer won 8-4 at the No. 2 doubles slot to open the match. After a loss at the No. 1 position, Claudio Halim and Nick Stocker gutted out a come-from-behind, 9-8 (7-1), win at the No. 3 position to earn St. John's the go-ahead point.

Nylen continued his run in the No. 2 singles spot, topping Scott Maucher quickly, 6-0, 6-1. At No. 5, Halim defeated Eric Conrad 6-2, 6-3 and Aurelio DiZazzo won the deciding point with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Etinne Paris at the No. 3 position.

Louis Desmarteaux led his No. 1 singles match, 6-2, 4-1 when the match was called, Morgan Bauer trailed 2-5 in the second set after winning the first 6-4 at No. 6 and Stocker was behind 1-6 in the second set after winning the first 6-3 at No. 4.

The Red Storm will face No. 1 Notre Dame tomorrow morning at 9:00 am.

On the women's side, St. John's earned the doubles point, winning the No. 3 and No. 1 matches, and won the round with singles points at No. 2, 4 and 6.

Kristina Bothova and Barbora Blahatiakova took the No. 3 match 8-5 and Allison Davidson and Hande Gorur combined for an 8-4 win at No. 1 to give St. John's the early lead.

In singles play, Bothova took the first 6-2 and edged out Monica Lyskawa 7-2 in the second set tie-breaker for the win at the No. 2 position. Gorur followed with a swift 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 4, but West Virginia stayed in the contest with a win at the No. 5 position.

Mariana Chachua, Lauren Leo and Blahatiakova all won their first sets, but each dropped the second set, leaving the match still up in the air. After losing her second set 6-3, Chachua bounced back and controlled the third set, winning 6-1 over Raynie Theis for the decisive point. Leo led her final set 3-2 and Blahatiakova trailed 2-1 when the match was called.

The women will also face No. 1 Notre Dame tomorrow morning at 9:00 am.