Oct. 7, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The New Mexico men’s tennis team still has at least one athlete in the running for the Balloon Fiesta title in each draw at the end of day one. Freshmen Graeme Kassautzki and Johnny Parkes move into the Quarterfinals of Singles Flight A, freshman Chandler Brass is in the Singles Flight B Quarterfinals and the doubles team on senior Eric Conklin and sophomore Derek Lynch are still alive.
Kassautzki, the tournament’s No. 2 seed who earned a bye in the opening round, dropped Northern Arizona’s Gareth Ducray, 6-3, 6-4, in the Round of 16. Parkes, who also had a bye in the Round of 32 as the fifth seed, netted a 7-5, 6-3 win over New Mexico State’s Roman Stoisavljevic. Conklin also competed in Flight A, beating NAU’s Jeffrey Morys 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 in the Round of 32 before just missing an upset of of third-seeded Ricardo Omana of the College of Santa Fe. Omana came back from a first set beating to win 3-6, 7-6, 6-3.
Brass earned a bye in the Round of 32, competing in Flight B. He then cruised to a 6-3, 6-0 win over Air Force’s Keith Cronican. Lynch, also competing in Flight B, started the day with a 6-4, 7-6 win over Northern Arizona’s Kyle Thieme in the Round of 32. Lynch battled with NMSU’s Tim America in the Round of 16 but fell 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
After a hard-fought 9-8 win over Colorado’s Jeff Chizeverand CSF’s Annibal Aranda in the opening round of doubles, Conklin and Lynch breezed past Shawn Bakerand Drew Gaffneyof the New Mexico Military Institute, 8-1. Kassautzki and Parkes teamed up for an 8-6 loss to Thieme and Trent Hayward. Brass joined forces with NAU’s Scott Carruthers for an 8-5 loss to Carruther’s teammates, Chris Arena and Morys.
Day two begins tomorrow morning with singles at 8 a.m. Brass is scheduled to play Texas Tech’s Jay Woffard at 9 a.m., Parkes faces fourth-seeded Marek Dvorak of Colorado at 10 a.m. and Kassautzki takes on seventh-seeded Viktor Zetterholm of Denver at 10 a.m. Doubles is slated to being at 3:30 p.m.