April 20, 2008

FRESNO, Calif. - The Fresno State men's tennis team closed out the regular season with a 7-0 victory over visiting Pacific, Sunday at the Wathen Tennis Center. The Bulldogs improved to 15-8 and finished the year 13-1 at home.

"It was nice to come out with a win over a good team," head coach Jay Udwadia said. "We had a couple weeks off to work on some things and now we are focusing on playing in a good WAC tournament next week."

Fresno State used an exciting doubles point victory to vault into singles play. Freshman Denny Fafek and sophomore Taylor Leiby trailed 5-3 at the No. 2 spot before winning five straight games to give Fresno State an early advantage. Pacific's Renan Delsin and Moritz Starke topped junior Rudolf Siwy and sophomore Mirko Zapletal at No. 1 to even the doubles matches.

But sophomores Flavio Mollinedo and Tejesvi Veerepalli came through at No. 3 for a 9-7 come from behind victory to clinch the doubles point.

The `Dogs got off to a good start in singles as Zapletal cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over David Gonzalez for his 19th overall victory of the season. Freshman Siddharth Alapati quickly followed with a straight-set victory over Austin Kakar at the No. 6 spot.

Siwy won a team-best 26th overall match at the No. 1 spot, clinching the match with a 6-1, 6-4 defeat of Starke.

Veerepalli and Fafek both won in straight sets, while freshman Martin Nilsson completed the match with a victory at the No. 5 spot in a super-tiebreaker.

Fresno State now heads to the Western Athletic Conference tournament for an opportunity to earn an automatic birth into the NCAA tournament. Action begins April 24 in Las Cruces, N.M.

NCAA Men's Tennis
Wathen Tennis Center (Fresno, Calif.)
April 20, 2008

No. 49 Fresno State def. Pacific, 7-0

Doubles (Fresno State wins doubles point)
1) Starke/Delsin (UOP) def. Siwy/Zapletal (FS), 8-5
2) Fafek/Leiby (FS) def. Gonzalez/Gramma (UOP), 8-5
3) Mollinedo/Veerepalli (FS) def. Kakar/Veskimagi (UOP), 9-7
Order of completion: 2, 1, 3

Singles
1) * No. 78 Rudolf Siwy (FS) def. Moritz Starke (UOP), 6-1, 6-4
2) Mirko Zapletal (FS) def. David Gonzalez (UOP), 6-1, 6-2
3) Tejesvi Veerepalli (FS) def. Artem Gramma (UOP), 6-2, 7-6 (3)
4) Denny Fafek (FS) def. Renan Delsin (UOP), 7-5, 7-5
5) Martin Nilsson (FS) def. Vegerd Veskimagi (UOP), 2-6, 7-6 (6), (10-6)
6) Siddharth Alapati (FS) def. Austin Kakar (UOP), 6-2, 6-2
Order of completion: 2, 6, 1
* clinched match

Records: Fresno State (15-8); Pacific (9-11)