Men's Tennis Falls to Illinois in NCAA Second Round

Saturday, May 13

Louisville, Ky.

12:00 PM

University of Louisville

Illinois<br>(Second Round)

U of L's Jakob Gustaffson, along with partner Jeremy Clark will play in the NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Doubles Championships.

May 13, 2006 | Men's Tennis

May 13, 2006

Louisville, Ky. -- The No. 27-ranked University of Louisville men's tennis team fell to the No. 7 seeded University of Illinois in the second round of the 2006 NCAA Men's Tennis Championship.

For the eighth straight season, Illinois will advance to the Sweet Sixteen hosted this year by Stanford in Palo Alto where they will likely face either No. 10 UCLA or No. 23 Colorado, the two top teams in the Los Angeles region on May 20.

U of L finishes the season at 18-8.

"Every time we challenged them with our style of game, they had an answer," said U of L head coach Rex Ecarma. "Illinois just seemed to lift up its game even more. I have to give credit to them, theu are a Final four or national championship caliber team."

The doubles point was hotly contested in a knotted battle that lasted just over an hour. At No. 2, Damar Johnson and Jhonny Berrido went up 4-1 in the early going but could not hold off the charging No. 19-ranked pair of Pramod Dabir and Ryler DeHeart, who came back to win 9-8 (7-1). Meanwhile, No. 4-ranked Kevin Anderson and Ryan Rowe had their hands full at No. 1 when No. 26-ranked U of L's Jeremy Clark and Jakob Gustaffson came back to tie at seven. Rowe and Anderson escaped with a 9-7 win to clinch the point for the Illini. At No. 3, Slavko Radman and Tony Teufel were tied at 7-7 with GD Jones and Ruben Gonzales at the time of the win.

"Every time we did something good, they did something better," said Ecarma. "I have to think that if we had played out the entire match the score would have been 4-3."

For the second straight day, Illinois took command of singles play, taking every first set. The Cardinals' Jakob Gustaffson came back to take his second set 3-6 but was trailing 2-1 when he was forced to abandon. Damar Johnson gamely hung on after being edged 7-6 in the first round to take the second set 7-6 (7-4) but he also had to abandon his match . Nicolas Huard was coming back on Marc Spicijaric at No. 6 and was tied 5-5 after losing the first set 6-4. For Illinois, the No. 11-ranked Ryler DeHeart handled Slavko Radman 6-4, 6-4 to score the Illini's first singles point.

"DeHeart is a dominant player," Dancer said. "He is starting to play with passion and when he gets that going he is our leader."

Ruben Gonzales outmuscled Jhonny Berrido 6-3, 6-1 to take the Illini to 3-0. Ryan Rowe clinched the match when he fended off Jeremy Clark 6-2, 7-5.

"Louisville's match yesterday was long because of the rain delay. But we are all trying to play for a championship and Louisville is used to doing that, so I don't think it (lack of rest) was a factor," said Illinois coach Brad Dancer.

Illinois 4, Louisville 0May 13, 2006NCAA Men's Tennis Championship Second RoundBass Rudd Tennis CenterLouisville, Ky.Doubles1.) No. 4 Anderson/Rowe (Illinois) vs. Clark/Gustaffson (Louisville) 9-72.) No. 19 Dabir/DeHeart (Illinois) def. Berrido/Johnson (Louisville) 9-8 (7-1)3.) Slavko Radman/Tony Teufel vs.GD Jones/Gonzales (Illinois) 7-7 abandonedOrder of Finish 2,1,3
Singles1.) No. 11 Ryler DeHeart (Illinois) def. Slavko Radman (Louisville) 6-4, 6-42.) No. 24 Kevin Anderson (Illinois) vs. Jakob Gustaffson (Louisville) 6-3, 3-6, 2-1 abd.3.) Damar Johnson (Louisville) vs. GD Jones (Illinois) 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-4) abd.4.) No. 68 Ryan Rowe (Illinois) def. Jeremy Clark (Louisville) 6-2, 7-55.) Ruben Gonzales (Illinois) def. Jhonny Berrido (Louisville) 6-3, 6-16.) Nicolas Houard (Louisville) vs.  Marc Spicijaric (Illinois) 6-4, 5-5 abd.