Tallahassee, Fla.--Georgia State men's
tennis senior Victor Valente fell in the singles main draw finals by a 6-0, 6-3
score to Florida's Florent Diep to end his, and the Georgia State men's tennis
team's, successful run at the ITA Southeast Regional Championships on Monday.
Valente
defeated three nationally-ranked singles opponents throughout his run to the
finals. He upset Florida's Michael Alford, ranked No. 84 in the ITA Preseason
Singles rankings, by a 6-3, 6-1, score in the first round. Valente then knocked
off Georgia's Garrett Brasseaux 6-3, 6-2, and Miami's Gabriel Flores 6-0, 6-3.
Next he took down a pair of Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets with a 6-3, 6-1 win
against Juan Melian in the quarterfinals and a 7-6 (3), 6-4 win vs. No.
30-ranked Juan Spir in the semifinals. Spir was the second-seeded player in the
tournament while Alford was the fourth seed.
Valente
and Diep played for an automatic invite to the USTA/ITA National Indoor
Intercollegiate Championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis
Center in Flushing, N.Y. The event runs from Nov. 8-11 and invites 32 of the
top singles players from all levels of college tennis to play in the
tournament. Diep earned the automatic entry but Valente became eligible for one
of six at-large bids to the tournament with his run to the finals. The six
at-large selections are taken from the pool of runners-up from the 12 USTA/ITA
Regional Championships
Overall,
the Panthers won 10 singles matches in the tournament with every entrant
advancing from the Round of 64. A notable performance was sophomore Sofiane
Chevallier who won three consecutive matches in the qualifying draw to earn a
spot in the singles main draw. He then won his first match in the singles main
draw against Florida's Luke Johnson 7-5, 6-0.
In
doubles, GSU posted four victories including Valente and senior Lucas Santa Ana
earning a spot in the quarterfinals of the doubles main draw. One of the most
successful doubles pairs in GSU history, the two notably defeated the
eighth-seeded tandem of Juan Carlos Acuna and Oliver Pramming (USF) by an 8-5
score to reach the quarterfinals. Junior Robert Schulze paired with Chevallier
to add an 8-3 victory against Miami's Victor Mauz and Jack Murphy.
"I
am very proud of how the guys competed, they did remarkably well in the face of
some adversity this weekend," GSU assistant coach Cesar Vargas said, "The guys
are really starting to buy in to our coaching style and what we are trying to
accomplish here, we've been working hard and it is good to see that pay off.
The guys will certainly gain a lot of confidence from playing well against very
tough competition this weekend."
"I've
never seen someone compete as hard as Victor did this weekend," Vargas added, "His
will to win made it a lot of fun to coach him and watch him play. He was the
talk of the tournament here amongst all the coaches and players."
The
Southeast region is regarded as one of the strongest of the 12 different
regions as broken down by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The region
boasts eight nationally-ranked teams as of last year's final rankings in
Georgia (5), Florida (12), Florida State (32), South Florida (51), Georgia
State (60), Georgia Tech (62), North Florida (66) and Miami (67). All results
from this weekend's ITA-sanctioned tournament will be recorded for individual
singles and doubles results only.
Georgia
State concludes its fall schedule at the Winthrop Invitational in Rock Hill,
S.C., on Nov. 2. The Panthers are then off until the Crimson Tide Indoor Invite
from Jan. 11-13, 2013. Visit the men's tennis page on GeorgiaStateSports.com
for a preview of the Winthrop Invite.
www.GeorgiaStateSports.com
