Bulldogs Record Most Wins at ITA Mideast Regional
October 24, 2007 | Men's Tennis
The Gardner-Webb men's tennis team had a great showing at the
ITA Wilson Mideast Regionals this past weekend. The team sent three
representatives (Rafael Altmeyer, Evgeny Slesarev, and Andrew
Veeder) to participate in singles and doubles competition. The
Bulldogs came out with six wins in the tournament; the most ever
recorded by Gardner-Webb in regional play.
The Mideast Region is only one of eight regions in the country. It
consists of 51 out of 240 Division I schools in the country. The
Mideast Region has 20 of the top 75 ranked schools in the nation,
and is arguably the toughest region in the nation. This year's
Midest Regional Tournament was held at the University of
Virginia.
Both the singles and doubles competition had qualifying rounds for
those individuals who did not already place into the main draw. The
singles qualifier had rounds of 128, 64, and 32. If a player made
it past the round of 32, they would advance to the singles main
draw.
Veeder and Altmeyer were placed in the singles qualifier to start
the tournament. Both of the Bulldogs won their first matches to
advance to the round of 64. In the round of 64, Veeder fell,
6-7(3); 3-6 to his ninth ranked opponent.
Altmeyer, on the other hand, played a great match and won 7-5;
7-6(5) to advance to the round of 32. In the round of 32, Altmeyer
could not keep up and fell 6-1, 6-0.
Gardner-Webb's Evgeny Slesarev placed into the main draw at the
tournament. Slesarev displayed a dominating performance in the
first round winning 6-1; 6-0 over his opponent from VCU. In the
second round, Slesarev's serve was broken in both sets and he fell
4-6; 3-6.
Veeder and Slesarev teamed up for the doubles main draw. They
defeated their first round opponents in dominating fashion, 8-0.
With the win, they advanced to play a tough team from Georgia Tech
that same night. Veeder/Slesarev made some nice plays and squeeked
out a victory, 9-8(5), in the second round of the doubles main
draw. In the third round, the Bulldog team fell short losing 9-8(7)
to end their run in doubles competition.
The Bulldogs have some time off to reflect on their past successes
before their next tournament. They are scheduled to participate in
the ITA National Indoor Championships, November 2-4, at Columbus,
Ohio.
