Armstrong Atlantic, Columbus State Men Advance to NCAA Tennis National Quarterfinals

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FLA -- Both the Columbus State and Armstrong Atlantic State men's tennis teams swept their opening-round matches on Wednesday at the NCAA National Championships at the Sanlando Park tennis center.  AASU beat Kutztown 5-0 while Columbus State knocked off West Virginia Wesleyan by the same score.  Both will now play in the national quarterfinals on Thursday.

AASU jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead after doubles. Eudaldo Bonet and Paul Fitzgerald claimed an 8-0 win over Arijit Goswami and Cameron O'Donnell at No. 3 doubles, then Matus Mydla and Daniel Regan notched an 8-1 win over Jonathan Goulet and Karren Krout at No. 2 doubles. No. 3-ranked Rafael Array and Mikk Irdoja then closed out the sweep with an 8-3 win over Kaushik Das and Arpit Sharma at No. 1 doubles.

In singles play, top-ranked Irdoja defeated Das, 6-1, 6-0, at No. 1 singles, then Fitzgerald completed a 6-0, 6-1 win over O'Donnell at No. 6 singles.

AASU will now face Barry on Thursday at 1:00 pm in a rematch of last season's national championship final.

CSU, making its first-ever appearance in the field of 16, advances to the quarterfinal round with the win.

The duo of Frank Suarez and Christophe Noblet got things started with an 8-3 win over Marc Rosner and Rafael Calcavante at the number one double position. Olivier Simonet and Nemanja Djuric took an 8-5 win at number two over Alvaro Ochoa and Daniel Lobo, while Filip Cojbasic and Daniel Stomberg defeated Doug Hornak and Dennis Cole 8-4 at number three.

Stomberg was the first to register a singles win, earning the Cougars' fourth point with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Danilo Franciscon at number four singles. Frank Suarez sealed the match a short time later as he won a hard-fought 7-5, 6-3 match over Rosner for the clinching point.

CSU will now face Northwood (Mich.) on Thursday in the quarterfinal round. Northwood, ranked #22 in the country, defeated Western New Mexico 5-1 on Wednesday to advance.