Upstate Ready For Another Run At ITA Mideast Regionals
10/14/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Oct. 14, 2008
Complete Weekly Release in PDF Format 
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The USC Upstate men's tennis team will wrap up its fall season this weekend when it travels to the ITA Mideast Regionals at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center at the University of North Carolina. The Spartans will have two singles players in the qualifying rounds and one doubles team, with both junior Jack Roux and senior Leandro Osorio competing in singles and as a doubles team. The Spartans also send one singles player to the main draw in junior Javier Tori and the junior duo of Renzo Airaldi and Javier Tori will also play in the main draw.
2007 ITA Mideast Regionals Recap: The University of North Carolina's duo of Taylor Fogleman and Chris Kearny posted an 8-2 win over USC Upstate's sophomore Renzo Airaldi and junior Sandy Franz in the semifinals of the ITA Mideast Regionals at the University of Virginia.
The loss ended a remarkable run by the Spartans' top doubles pair. Coming into the regionals with a four-match losing streak on their backs, Franz and Airaldi rebounded by winning three matches to reach the semifinals. In the opening round, they took out Atlantic Sun foes from East Tennessee State - Daniel Isaza and Lisandro Picardo - 8-3. They benefited from a default in the second round, as Virginia's 24th-ranked team of Houston Barrick and Dominic Inglot was forced out due to injury. In the third round, Franz and Airaldi fell behind, 7-3, to Evgeny Slesarev and Andrew Veeder of Gardner-Webb, but fought back by taking the next five games before the Bulldog pair forced a tiebreaker. After facing a match-point, they fought back to take the tiebreaker, 9-7 and the match, 9-8. They continued their solid play on Friday, taking an 8-2 decision from the Tar Heel pair of Kyle Baker and Will Plyler, but the duo of Fogelman and Kearny got revenge for their teammates by posting an 8-2 win in the semifinals.
New High For Lovera
Junior Arnaldo Lovera, who wrapped up his fall season at the Elon Invitational, is out to the hottest start for the men's tennis team in the Division I era, as the 6-0 Venezuelan will finish his fall a perfect 9-0. The junior started out her season by winning the top-flighted Gold bracket at the ETSU Fall Challenge. He added three wins at both the Wofford Fall Challenge and the Elon Invitational. In his career, Lovera has proven solid in singles play, holding a career 42-13 (.764) record. Both Lovera and junior Renzo Airaldi enjoyed seven match win streaks in 2007-08, the previous best at the Division I level.
Os Oh Sweet
Senior Leandro Osorio, with a doubles win with sophomore partner Nico Ospina, at the Wofford Fall Challenge, passed his former doubles cohort, Sebastian Gonzales-Orbegoso, for third in the schools career doubles record book earlier this fall and now with 56 career wins, Osorio is seven wins away from Jose Luis Reyes (2001-05) and second in the record book.
Going For 40
Although juniors Javier Tori and Arnaldo Lovera became the 12th and 13th players in the men's tennis program's history to reach 40 career wins this fall, they may be joined in short time by two others on the men's roster. All juniors, Jack Roux enters the weekend with 38 wins and Renzo Airaldi enters with 33 wins.
Lovera Finishes Second At Elon Invitational
Junior Arnaldo Lovera wrapped up another perfect weekend at the Elon Invitational on Saturday afternoon. His 3-0 record, with all his singles matches being played in the second flight, helped give him 24 points as he finished second to Elon's Damon Gooch at the tournament. Lovera, who also won his flight at the ETSU Fall Challenge and posted a perfect 3-0 mark at the Wofford Fall Challenge, became the 13th player in school history to reach 40 career singles wins during the weekend. Lovera downed Elon's Alberto Rojas, 7-5, 6-4 on Friday before beating Longwood's Carlos de Andoain, 7-5, 6-3, and Campbell's Larbi Lamzouri, 6-0, 6-2, on Saturday.
Spartan Men Perform Well At Wofford Fall Challenge
The USC Upstate men's tennis team won 19 of 31 matches during the Wofford Fall Challenge. Juniors Javier Tori and Arnaldo Lovera and sophomore Nico Ospina each won all three of their singles matches during the tournament to lead Upstate.
The Spartans won six of 11 matches against Wofford on Friday before starting Saturday by taking five of six singles matches and two of three doubles matches against Presbyterian in the team vs. team round-robin format. In the nightcap, the Spartans won one of the three doubles matches and four of the six full-set singles matches against Appalachian State.
Tori Reaches Quarterfinals of Southern Intercollegiates
Junior Javier Tori's tremendous run at the prestigious Southern Intercollegiate Championships came to an end as Tori fell to Division II bracket championship bracket finalist Richard Cowden of Middle Tennessee State, 6-4, 6-3, in the quarterfinals. Tori was the first Upstate player in the Division I era to reach the quarterfinals at the Southern Intercollegiates.
Tori, playing in the Division II singles bracket, started the tournament with an impressive 6-2, 6-3 win over Central Florida's Brock Sakey. Tori, who won one match at the Southern Intercollegiates as a sophomore, opened Saturday with an impressive 6-1, 6-1 win over seven-seed Jacksonville's Jamie Esteban to earn a spot in the third round. In the third round, Tori ground out a three-set, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win against Duke's Luke Marchese.
Nico's Nice
Sophomore Nico Ospina certainly hasn't experienced any sort of sophomore slump. The Bogota, Colombia, native has posted a 9-2 singles record this fall, having won his flight at the ETSU Fall Challenge and also winning three matches at the Wofford Fall Challenge. Ospina posted a 4-1 record as a freshman, as he only played in two fall tournaments and in one dual meet.
