Sept. 21, 2001
Charleston, Ill. - The UIC men's tennis team kicked off the 2001-02 season on Friday as they began competition at the two-day Rex Darling Invitational hosted by Eastern Illinois University.
Despite strong play across the board by the Flames, the six UIC singles competitors went 2-9 on the afternoon.
Two-time all-conference selection Nick Bodmer, competing in the No. 1 Flight, opened the day with a 6-2, 6-4, straight-set victory over Eastern Illinois' C. Weber. The junior was unable to advance past the quarterfinals, though, as he lost a hard fought match to Oliver Floth (6-3, 6-4) of Creighton.
"It was a tough match," Head Coach Hans Neufeld, who also made his coaching debut on Friday, remarked. "Nick just had a tough time breaking the other guy. Nick was out-hitting him from the baseline and played really well."
Freshman Ken Howry looked strong in his first collegiate match, downing Matt Blume of IUPU-Ft. Wayne, 6-1, 6-3, in the No. 2 Flight. Howry would suffer a similar fate to Bodmer in the second round, dropping a 6-1, 7-5 decision to EIU's Lucas Pluta to fall into the back side of the draw.
In other action, sophomore Jon Schmidt, competing in the No. 1 Flight, lost his only match of the day, getting bounced by Nick Vuko of Valparaiso 6-2, 6-4.
Sophomore Amol Desai, who was a tough-luck 0-2 on the day in the No. 3 Flight, rallied back in his first match versus Scott Robuck of Bradley only to lose in a tiebreaker, 7-6, 3-6, (10-8). He then fell 6-3, 6-4, to Ben Dunham-Freer of Valparaiso in his consolation match.
Senior Wade Clark and junior Angel Ochoa were also both winless on the day as Clark dropped straight-set decisions to Ken Otto (7-5, 6-0) of Creighton and Tom Heidenberger (6-3, 7-5) of UW-Green Bay in Flight #2 action while Ochoa fell prey to Tim McCarthy (6-0, 6-3) of Creighton and Bret Martin (6-4, 6-1) of Bradley in the No. 3 Flight.
Doubles play kicks off day two action tomorrow at the Rex Darling Invitational at 8:00 a.m.
This weekend's individual singles and doubles tournament features players from UIC and EIU, as well as Bradley, Creighton, IUPU-Ft. Wayne, Northern Iowa, Valparaiso and UW-Green Bay.
