Friday, September 15, 2006

Valparaiso University's Alex Lau (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson Senior H.S.) had success in singles and doubles on Friday afternoon on the opening day of the Ball State Fall Invitational in Muncie, Ind., the Crusaders first fall event of the season.

The sophomore defeated Tomek Czernuszewicz of Marquette 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the singles C Flight after advancing on a first round bye. He will face Bryan Schbuert of Xavier (Ohio) in Saturday's quarterfinals.

Lau also teamed with Mike Shideler (Valparaiso, Ind./Munster H.S.) in the C Flight of doubles to post an 8-1 triumph over a team from IPFW in the quarterfinals. The duo will face a team from Marquette in Saturday's semifinals.

The only other victory by a Crusader player on Friday came by Shideler in the B Flight of singles, downing Alex Roby of Bradley 6-0, 6-3 in the first round. He then was defeated 6-2, 6-2 in the second round by Jimmy Chu of Northern Illinois.

The Crusaders will resume play on Saturday morning for day two of competition beginning at 7:30 a.m. CDT.