Valparaiso won five singles matches on the first day of competition at the Hotels at Grand Prarie Classic on Friday to begin a three day tournament hosted by Bradley in Peoria, Ill.

“I was very pleased with how well we played today to begin the year,” head coach Jim Daugherty said.  “Our guys all seemed to be in great shape and ready to go for the season.”

Chris Baum (Charlotte, N.C./Providence H.S.) won both of their singles matches on day at third singles to get his year started on a positive note.  The redshirt-junior was a 6-4, 6-4 victor over Ben Kopecky of DePauw to start the day before downing Jesse Hardacre of Lewis 6-4, 6-2 in his second match.

Eric Honert (Arvada, Colo./Ralston Valley H.S.) and Siddarth Mehta (South Bend, Ind./Clay H.S.) each added  victories in their lone match on day one.  Honert cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 triumph over John Richert of Lewis in the fourth flight while Mehta downed Robert Nieters of Southern Indiana 6-3, 6-0 at fifth singles.

In the eighth flight, Egan Hart (Raleigh, N.C./Ravenscroft H.S.) made his collegiate debut splitting a pair of contests, both in a match tie-break to players from DePauw.  Hart won his first match 6-2, 4-6, 13-11 before falling in the night cap 7-6 (4), 4-6, 10-8.

Valparaiso will return to the courts for day two of action in Peoria on Saturday morning beginning at 9 a.m.