Upstate Ready To Get Back On Courts At Wofford Fall Challenge
9/30/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Sept. 30, 2008
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SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The USC Upstate men's and women's tennis teams return to the courts this weekend as they head downtown to play in the Wofford Fall Challenge for the second straight year. The Spartans are coming off strong performances at both the Southern Intercollegiate Championships and the ETSU Fall Challenge and will look to keep rolling at Wofford. At the Southern Intercollegiates, junior Javier Tori started his season by advancing to the quarterfinals of the Division II bracket. At ETSU, the Spartans won six flights during the tournament, including senior Anna Novo and sophomores Emilia Milovanovic and Nico Ospina each won both their singles and doubles flights.
2007 Wofford Fall Challenge Recap: The USC Upstate men's tennis team once again dominated play at the Wofford Fall Challenge, finishing the event with an .897 winning percentage. Junior Leandro Osorio and sophomore Jack Roux led the team with six wins during the tournament, three in singles and three in doubles.
Junior Anna Novo won her singles match and two doubles matches to run her winning stretch to 18 matches as the USC Upstate women's tennis team won 10 of 12 matches to wrap up the Wofford Fall Challenge. Senior Diana Martinez reached her 100th career victory, posting a doubles win and adding her 101st with a singles win as the USC Upstate women's tennis team completed a successful first day at the tournament.
Upstate Wins Six Flights At ETSU Fall Challenge
Senior Anna Novo and sophomore Emilia Milovanovic teamed up to not only win the third doubles tournament title in their two years together on Sunday at the ETSU Fall Challenge, but the pair each also claimed three-set victories in the finals of their respective singles brackets. The pair were joined by two singles' bracket and one doubles bracket winners on the men's side in junior Arnaldo Lovera and sophomore Nico Ospina. Ospina teamed with senior Leandro Osorio to win the A doubles flight.
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.
Tori, Tori, Tori
Junior Javier Tori has posted an impressive 37-21 record in his career in singles play, leaving him just three singles wins shy of becoming the 12th player in school history to reach 40 career singles wins. Tori started the season with an impressive 3-1 record in the Division II bracket at the Southern Intercollegiates.
Vamos, Vive
Senior Vivian Neuenschwander became the 10th player in school history to reach 70 combined wins at the USC Upstate Fall Tournament, thanks to two singles wins in the `B' bracket. Thanks to two more singles wins and two doubles wins at the ETSU Fall Invitational, Neuenschwander now has 43 careeer singles wins and 31 doubles wins, which is just one win shy of her reaching 75 combined wins.
Super-Novo
Senior Anna Novo enters the week looking to get a few steps closer to the top of the school's record book. Curently with 69 career singles wins, Novo is just four wins behind Diana Martinez for the school record. Martinez won 73 matches from 2004-08 playing anywhere from No. 3 to No. 5 singles. Novo has started every match in her career at Upstate in the No. 1 singles slot. Novo, with 124 career combined wins (69 singles, 55 doubles), is closing in on Susana Hernadez, who posted 125 career combined wins from 2004-08, for second in school history.
Another First
After earning the Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year honors and winning a school-record 29 matches in 2007-08, senior Anna Novo was rewarded for her efforts once again by becoming the first woman Spartan in the Division I era to earn an ITA ranking. She is currently ranked 124th in the ITA singles preseason rankings. Current student assistant coach Sandy Franz was the first Spartan to earn an ITA Division I ranking, beginning the 2008 spring season ranked 96th on the men's side.
Last week, Novo's ranking helped her earn Upstate's first slot in the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades, Calif. The Spartan senior lost her only match in the pre-qualifying round against 107th-ranked Noelle Hickey of Georgia Tech.
It's Always Better To Share
Senior Leandro Osorio has also left his mark in the doubles record book. With 83 career combined wins, he is one of 11 players in school history to reach 80 career wins. Osorio, with 54 career doubles wins, is currently tied for fourth in the career record book with Sebastian Gonzales-Orbegoso (54), sitting behind only former All-Americans Jose Luis Reyes (63) and Stefan Dumitrescu (72) in the career list.
