April 7, 2006

The University of Dayton men's tennis team won both of its matches on the first day of the Atlantic 10 Men's Tennis Championship, and became the first #7 seed to reach the semifinals in A-10 history.

UD beat Fordham 4-0 in the morning, and then upset second-seeded Xavier 4-3 in the afternoon. The day's action set up a rematch of last year's title match. Defending champion Richmond also won two matches Friday. The Flyers and Spiders will meet at 2:00 p.m. EDT Saturday. With the winner advancing to the finals for the second straight season.

Against Fordham, Dayton took the doubles point when Tom Murphy and Jamison Downs beat Mike Rosado and Mike Misiti 8-3 and James O'Connell and Rex Cabrera took Peter Zipf and Pat Tool 8-1. Three singles wins later (O'Connell over Misiti at #2 singles 6-2, 6-4; Cabrera over Zipf at #3 singles 6-0, 6-2; Downs over Tool at #4 singles 6-1, 6-0), UD had clinched its first-round win.

In the quarterfinal win over Xavier, who beat the Flyers 5-2 during the regular season, Dayton came through in two of three doubles matches that included a tiebreaker set to gain the victory. The Murphy/Downs and O'Connell/Cabrera teams both won 8-3 over Rob Simpson and Doug Matthews, and Oliver Marinkovic and Jeremy Miller, respectively.

In singles, O'Connell took the second singles match from Marinkovic 6-0, 6-3, and at #1 singles, Murphy defeated Miller 6-2, 7-3 (3). In the match's pivotal confrontation, Flyer freshman David Peyton edged XU freshman David Dieciuc 7-6 (2), 1-6, 7-5.