The River Forest Collegiate Invitational began Friday morning under beautiful conditions at the River Forest Tennis Club.  Eight teams from around the Midwest descended upon the near west suburbs to battle on the clay courts in doubles and singles tournaments.

The day began with two rounds of doubles competition.  UIC found success from their #1 team of Marcelo Dib and Niko Wasilewicz, who won both of their sets.  They topped a duo from Youngstown State, 6-4, in the first round, and then advanced in the winner's bracked by downing a Northern Illinois pair by the same score.  Dib and Wasilewicz will play for the #1 doubles championship when action resumes Saturday morning, in a one 8-game pro set.

Johan Hedstrom and Marco Nanni also advanced to the championship in the #3 draw.  They beat Marquette, 7-6, in a tightly contested first round, and then dispatched St. Louis, 6-3.  They will face Northern Illinois in the championship set.

The #4 doubles group is a round-robin format.  In that group, Piotr Lada was paired with a player from Marquette.  They lost to a Valparaiso duo, 6-4, in their first set but regrouped to get a 7-6 (5) win over a team comprised of Northern Illinois and Valpo in the second, pre-determined matchup.

In the #2 doubles bracket, Alvaro de la Fuente and William Wale battled for two sets but did not get the win in either one.  They fell to an Eastern Illinois team, 7-5, in the first round, and were bumped to the 7^th place set by Youngstown State, 7-6 (4).

After a break for lunch, the singles tournament began with one round of play.  Two Flames moved into the winners' bracket, where they will play one match Saturday for a chance to advance to Sunday's singles championships.

In the #1 singles draw, Marcelo Dib fell to Detroit Mercy's Nathan Ponton, 6-2, 6-3.  Niko Wasilewicz also went down in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, against Northern Illinois' Eric Marbach at #2.  The Flames found success in the #3 and #5 draws from Johan Hedstrom and Marco Nanni respectively.  Hedstrom topped Luke Purser of Youngstown State, 6-4, 7-6 (3); while Nanni needed a tiebreaker to triumph over Valparaiso's Garrett Gardner, 6-7 (2), 6-3, (7).

William Wale represented the Flames in the #4 draw, and lost to Detroit Mercy's Alvaro Arce, 6-4, 6-4.  In the #6 bracket, Alvaro de la Fuente fell to Valpo's Brian Pecyna, 6-1, 6-4.  Piotr Lada rounded out the team's singles efforts in the round-robin group of the #7 draw, where Youngstown State's Yossi Dahan won in a 6-4, 6-3 match.

Play will resume Saturday morning at 9:30 with the doubles championships.  The singles competitions will continue in the afternoon.