Saturday, September 17, 2005

Day two of the Ball State Fall Invitational saw Valparaiso's doubles teams garner some success on Saturday, as the Crusaders had two duos advance to the consolation draw finals of their respective flights.

In the B flight of doubles, Dave Bukowski (Mount Prospect, Ill./Prospect H.S.) and Mike Wagner (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer H.S.) downed a duo from IUPUI 8-4 in the quarterfinals and a pair from IPFW 8-4 in the semifinals to advance to Sunday's consolation championship. Bukowski and Wagner will face Jan Polhamus and Joe Vallee of Ball State in the title match.

In the main draw of the B flight, Joe Venegas (Saint Charles, Ill./North H.S.) and Blain Keller (Muncie, Ind./Delta H.S.) dropped their quarterfinal match against Marquette 8-2.

The C flight saw Dan Brunette (Carmel, Ind./Lutheran H.S. of Indianapolis) and Alex Lau (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson Senior H.S.) defeat a team from IUPUI 8-4 in the quarterfinals. The pair also downed a combined team from Northern Illinois and Bradley by the same score in the semifinals and will meet Micael Chase and Nathan Jones in Sunday's championship.

In A doubles, Nic Kooyers (Holland, Mich./Holland H.S.) and Mike Shideler (Valparaiso, Ind./Munster H.S.) fell in the consolation flight 8-6.

In singles action, Valpo had less success. Venegas dropped his consolation draw match 6-2, 6-2 at A singles. In the consolation draw of the B flight, Wagner won his first match 2-6, 6-1, 10-4 against Pete Van Lieshout of Marquette before falling to David Katz of Northern Illinois 0-6, 6-0, 10-6. Katz also elminated Lau in the previous round 6-4, 4-6, 10-8.

In the C singles, Keller dropped his match in the main draw 6-4, 6-2 while Brunette split matches in the consolation draw. He downed Nathan Toles of IPFW 6-0, 6-1 before falling to Rustin Reys of Xavier (Ohio) 6-1, 6-2.

The two doubles teams will be in action on Sunday morning beginning at 8:30 a.m. in quest of the consolation championship.