Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Tennis Opens Season This Weekend
September 13, 2000 | Men's Tennis
Sept. 13, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's tennis team begins the 2000-2001 season this weekend, heading to Indianapolis, Ind., for the three-day Butler Invitational. The tourney, which will run from Friday through Sunday (Sept. 15-17), will feature Bradley, IUPUI and Marquette, in addition to the Falcons and the host school.
This weekend's action at Butler is the first of five fall tournaments for the Brown and Orange of fifth-year head coach Jay Harris.
HEAD COACH JAY HARRIS Jay Harris enters his fifth year with the Falcons, and has a career record of 52-41. A 1993 graduate of the University of Cincinnati, Harris guided the Falcons to a Mid-American Conference regular-season co-championship last season.
LAST YEAR The Falcons finished the 1999-2000 season with a 16-8 overall dual-match record, and BGSU went 5-1 in the MAC to tie for the league regular-season crown. The Brown and Orange lost to eventual league tournament champion Ball State in the semifinals.
FIRST TITLE SINCE 1964 The Falcons' MAC regular-season title last spring marked the first of any kind by the men's tennis program since the 1964 team tied with Miami for the league title. That Falcon squad, coached by Bob Keefe, went 15-0 in dual-match play.
PLETHORA OF RETURNEES Harris welcomes back eight of last season's nine letterwinners to his squad, losing only the graduated Sonny Huynh. Among the returnees are an All-MAC First-Team selection, and the league's newcomer of the year.
Junior Vitek Wild returns after playing at the top singles flight for much of last season. Wild, after earning all-league second-team honors as a freshman in 1998-99, was named to the All-MAC First Team a year ago.
A pair of Falcon sophomores, Geoff Hiscox and Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo, were named to the All-MAC Second Team in their initial season in the Brown and Orange. The two players were the only frosh to earn all-league honors last year.
Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo was named the MAC's Newcomer of the Year after splitting time at the first and second singles flights last year.
THEY'RE BACK, TOO In addition to the aforementioned three players, Harris welcomes back five other players, all of whom have spent time in the starting lineup at some point in their Falcon tenure. Brandon Gabel is the lone senior on the team, while Mike Kossoff and Ed Kuresman join Wild in the junior class. Sophomores Peter Gardonyi and Micael Lopez-Acevedo - the twin brother of Nicolas - also return.
Harris welcomes one newcomer to his team. Freshman Nick Moxley, a native of Federal Way, Wash., joins the Falcons after graduating from Decatur High School.
QUOTING COACH HARRIS "We have all eight of our starters back from last year, and add one talented freshman who will definitely find time in the starting lineup at some point this season.
"(The Butler Invitational) should be a good tournament. Butler and Marquette ranked just below us in the region last year, so this will be a good measuring stick to see how we match up with those teams this year. I don't know much about Bradley, since we haven't played them.
"We are very excited, though, because this tournament is at the Indianapolis Tennis Center, where they play the RCA professional tournament. We're looking forward to playing in a tennis stadium.
"Our goal is to try to be as consistent as possible, performance-wise. I'm sure we will struggle early on this season, but we just want to try to stay consistent."
