Feb. 23, 2009

TULSA, Okla. (SMU)-SMU men's tennis (6-5) experienced a heartbreaking loss (4-3) to the No. 17 Tulsa Golden Hurricane (10-5) on Sunday, February 22 at the Case Tennis Center, in which the deciding match came down to a third set tiebreaker (6-4, 6-7, 7-5) with Tulsa's Marko Ballok defeating sophomore Adham el-Effendi for the win.

The Mustangs prevailed in doubles, earning the point after junior Robin Fahgen and freshman Gaston Cuadranti paired up for their fourth consecutive win (8-4) over Patrick Collins and Rusty Turpin, and sophomore tandem Darren Walsh and el-Effendi extended their win streak to five in the number two spot, defeating (8-5) Alberto Sottocorno and Ashley Watling.

In singles competition, No. 55 Fahgen had a comeback win (6-7, 6-4, 6-4) after dropping the first set to Philip Stephens, playing in the top spot for the Golden Hurricane. Junior Artem Baradach provided the other Mustang win, toppling (6-4, 6-4) Wojciech Starakiewicz in straight sets.

The Mustangs return to competition on Saturday against Texas at the Turpin Tennis Stadium, match start time of 12:00 pm.

No. 17 Tulsa 4, No. 55 SMU 3
Singles 1. #54 Robin Fahgen (SMU) def. Philip Stephens (TLS), 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4 2. Artem Baradach (SMU) def. Wojciech Starakiewicz (SMU), 6-3, 6-1 3. Ashley Watling (TLS) def. David Costa (SMU), 6-2, 7-6 (5) 4. Marko Ballok (TLS) def. Adham el-Effendi (SMU), 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5 5. Ross Cunningham (TLS) def. Darren Walsh (SMU), 6-3, 6-3 6. James Seagraves (TLS) def. Gaston Cuadranti (SMU), 6-4, 7-5
Doubles1. Cunningham/Stephens (TLS) def. Costa/Hooshyar (SMU), 8-5 2. el-Effendi/Walsh (SMU) def. Sottocorno/Watling (TLS), 8-5 3. Cuadranti/Fahgen (SMU) def. Collins/Turpin (TLS), 8-4