May 13, 2008

DAY 2 RESULTS

MOBILE, Ala--Round two of the 2008 NAIA Men's Tennis National Championship featured a pair of upsets and dominating victories by the top three seeds in the field.

Top-seeded Auburn-Montgomery (Ala.) advanced to Wednesday's Quarterfinals with a 6-0 victory over Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), 2^nd-seeded Embry-Riddle (Fla.) downed Berry (Ga.) 5-1, and 3rd-seeded Fresno Pacific (Calif.) shutout Shorter (Ga.) College 5-0.

The highlight of the day was Graceland (Iowa) upending 6^th-seeded Vanguard (Calif.) 5-4 in a match that outlasted all others.

The Graceland Yellowjackets swept doubles play to open up a commanding 3-0 lead, but the Vanguard Lions responded with some impressive play in singles action that featured four matchups which went three sets.

The Lions rallied to take a 4-3 lead by sweeping the No. 1-4 singles matchups after No. 1 singles player Florian Lemke rallied to defeat Remy Caffardo after dropping the opening set 6-3. That set the stage for some evening magic at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center as the No.5 and No. 6 singles matches entered the third sets.

Yellowjackets' No. 5 Thomas Brodbeck took the third set by a commanding 6-2 score over Thomas Frank to knot the match at 4-4 and leave it on the shoulders of Graceland's Mario Paz and Vanguard's Garret Gillion. In the third set, Paz built up a 5-2 advantage and then held on to polish off the victory with a 6-3 win in the decisive set.

The tournament's other upset featured the Bees of SCAD (Ga.) dropping 7^th-seeded Lindsey Wilson College (Ky.) by taking two-of-three doubles matches and then picking up easy wins in the No. 5 and No.6 singles matches. Other action on the day saw Concordia (Calif.) outlast Union (Ky.) 5-3, Azusa Pacific (Calif.) defeat fellow California school Point Loma 5-3 and California Baptist defeat Bethel 5-3.

Matches for the round of eight Wednesday at 1:00 pm are: Auburn-Montgomery v. Concordia, Cal Baptist v. Azusa Pacific, Fresno Pacific v. Graceland and SCAD v. Embry-Riddle.