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Men's Tennis Opens With Strong Showing
CHARLESTON, Ill. -- In the first day of action at the C. Roger Sorensen Eastern Illinois Tennis Invitational, the cold and wind could not slow down the DePaul men’s tennis team as they came out on fire. Newcomers Junior Mark Henderson and freshman George Wang paced the Blue Demons as both went 3-0 and play on Saturday morning in their respective flight finals. Henderson opened play in the Flight “A” bracket winning his first match in a Demon uniform, beating Brian Butt of Wright State 6-4, 5-7 (6), 10 –7. In his second match, he beat Brian Slack, IUPUI, 6-4, 7-6(2) to make it into the semifinals and a date against Eastern Illinois Brandon Blankenbaker. Henderson would take Blankenbaker in straight sets, 7-6 (5), 6-4 and will meet his teammate, C.J. Weber, on Saturday morning for the title. Wang came out smoking in his college debut in the Flight “B” bracket, beating up on IUPUI-Fort Wayne’s Scott Beasley, 6-1, 6-0. He would then have a little trouble in the second round against Wright State’s Kevin Teufel but end up winning, 6-3, 7-6 (2). In the semi-finals, Wang disposed of Wisconsin- Green Bay’s Tyler Dorn 6-3,6-3. He will face fellow Canadian freshman Charles Levaque of Eastern Illinois. Junior Robert Kotrozco playing in the Flight “A” could not shake off some cobwebs in his first match and fell to Ben Davis of Wisconsin- Green Bay, 7-5, 6-7 (1), 10-7. He would re-group in his next two matches as Kotrozco won easily beating players from Chicago State and Wright State. He plays in the back bracket finals on Saturday morning. Other strong results came from Flight “B” singles as Junior Sam Davidson beat IUPUI Marc Pyatt 6-2, 0-6, 10-5. He would lose in the next round to Eastern Illinois Charles Levaque in a tough three set match. In Flight “C” singles, sophomore Eric Huffman won his first two matches before bowing out of the tourney to Xavier’s Ryan Potts. In his first match of the day, sophomore Will Wang came out strong but could not finish off Xavier’s Matt Zollman losing 2-6, 6-2, 10-8. He would re-group in the back draw beating players from IUPUI- Fort Wayne and Wisconsin-Green Bay. In the last day of competition, the Blue Demons will break off into doubles teams after the singles finals.
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