Thursday, October 19, 2006

All three players for Valparaiso dropped first round qualifying matches on Wednesday at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships in Minneapolis, Minn., but two rebounded to win consolation contests later in the afternoon.

Nic Kooyers (Holland, Mich./Holland H.S.) had a match point in his first round match against Mpiloenhle Migogo of Indiana State before falling in a third set tie-break 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6). The senior rebounded to post a 6-4, 6-4 win over Butler's Ben Raynauld in the consolation round.

Mike Shideler (Valparaiso, Ind./Munster H.S.) also battled tough in his first round match against fifth seeded Kevin Hayward of Western Michigan, but dropped a 7-5, 6-2 decision. He came back to defeat Mark Goldin of UW-Green Bay 6-3, 7-6 (3) in consolation play.

Joe Venegas (Saint Charles, Ill./North H.S.) dropped a pair of matches on Wednesday. In the first round he lost to Western Michigan's John Pelton 6-1, 6-1 before dropping a 6-4, 6-4 decision to Ryan Hamning of Cleveland State in consolation action.

Kooyers and Venegas will be in action again on Friday evening at 7 p.m. in the first round of doubles play in the main draw. The Crusader duo will face 13th-seeded Matko Maravic and George Navas of Michigan.