Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Begins Dual-Match Season At IU
January 18, 2002 | Men's Tennis
Jan. 18, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's tennis team begins the dual-match portion of the 2001-02 schedule with a Saturday (Jan. 19) road match. The Falcons of head coach Jay Harris will travel to Bloomington, Ind., to take on the University of Indiana. Starting time is 3:00 p.m. local time at the Indiana Tennis Center.
The Hoosiers, who will open the day with a morning match against the University of Toledo, are currently ranked 46th in the nation in the latest ITA rankings, released Jan. 8. IU qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2001
Following the IU match, the Falcons will prepare for a bevy of home matches, all on the same day. BGSU will take on Dayton, Youngstown State and Chicago State on Saturday, Jan. 26, at the Shadow Valley Tennis Club in Toledo. The Dayton match is scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m., with the Falcons taking on YSU and CSU at 4:00 p.m. at 5:00 p.m., respectively.
Harris has a wealth of experienced players on his nine-man roster. The Falcons have three seniors, three juniors, two sophomores and one freshman on the current squad.
One of the seniors, Vitek Wild, already is the winningest player in school history. He is joined by classmates Mike Kossoff and Ed Kuresman and juniors Peter Gardonyi, Geoff Hiscox and Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo.
Wild has earned All-Mid-American Conference First-Team honors in each of the last two years after being named to the league's second team as a freshman. He was joined on the All-MAC First Team by Hiscox, who earned second-team laurels two years ago.
To say Hiscox had a successful fall campaign would be a tremendous understatement. The London, Ontario, native had a 10-3 record, and became the first BGSU player to ever qualify for the main draw at the ITA Men's All-American Championships. He won six matches in six days at that tournament before losing to San Diego State's Oliver Maiberger, who was ranked 13th in the nation at the time.
Hiscox was ranked 24th in the Midwest Region in the ITA's rankings (Dec. 14, 2001). He was the 70th-ranked singles player in the entire nation by the ITA that same week.
Harris has added a player to his squad for the spring semester. Milos Jirout, like Wild a native of the Czech Republic, will join the Falcons. He will have sophomore status.
Sophomore Joel Carney, a transfer from St. Bonaventure University, and freshman Ian Bliss round out the Falcon squad.
Gardonyi posted a solid 8-1 singles record in the fall, and teamed with Kuresman for a perfect 7-0 doubles mark. Bliss (7-2) and Lopez-Acevedo (7-4) each won seven singles matches in the fall, while Kossoff (6-3) won six.
The Falcons posted an overall record of 19-10 last season, the team's most dual-match victories since 1978-79. BGSU posted a 3-2 MAC record to finish third in the regular-season standings, then advanced to the MAC Tournament semifinals before dropping a marathon match to second-seeded and eventual tourney champion Western Michigan, 4-3. Harris lost just two letterwinners, Brandon Gabel and Nick Moxley from that squad.
