Oct. 25, 2009

Washington, D.C. - The Georgetown University men's and women's tennis teams recently had seven participants in the ITA Atlantic Regionals at Old Dominion University and Virginia Tech University. The highlights were Michael Clarke's 7-5, 6-2 win over Peter Cognetti of St. Joseph's, Charlie Caris' victory against Penn State's Guanhau Chen 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5), the doubles team of Anthony Tan and Caris beating Richard Blumenfeld and Yan Levinski of George Washington, 8-4 and women's freshman Victoria Sekely triumphing over Lexi Brand of Maryland, 6-2, 6-0,

During the second round of singles play on the men's side, Clarke lost to No. 5 seed Lee Signer of Virginia, 6-1, 6-1 and Caris lost to No. 7 seed Patrick Daciek of Virginia Tech , 6-4, 6-4. However, Caris led 4-2 in both sets he lost, showing some of the potential he has delivered on during the fall season.

In second round doubles play, Tan and Caris lost to the No. 6 seeded duo, Ivan Salec and Zack Watson of Radford, 8-4. Clarke and Miller also went out in the second round to Sebastien Jacques and Yoann Re, the No. 5-seeded doubles team, 8-4.

In other singles play, Tan lost a difficult 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 decision to Virginia Tech's Zack Pine and Bryan Miller fell to Benjamin Chomette of ODU, 6-3, 6-2.

"ITA's are all about going against very tough competition and tough teams," Head Coach Gordie Ernst said. "Every game, every set, every match, is a learning experience for all of our players and I think our players will really grow from this weekend's matches."

Sekely's win earned her a second-round match with the tournament's No. 1 seed, Michaela Kissell of Marshall. Kissell, who is ranked among the top 40 collegiate players, defeated Sekely, 6-1 6-0.

In doubles play, the team of Caroline Kuehn / Alex Sebia lost 8-1 to the No. 1 doubles team, Stevens/Tomljanovic of Virginia.