Oct. 19, 2006
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Notre Dame sophomore Santiago Montoya cruised into the second round of qualifying action on Thursday in the ITA Midwest Championships. Junior Andrew Roth dropped his opening round match, but rebounded with a victory in his consolation round match. Montoya stands two more victories away from a berth in the 64-player main draw.
“I was definitely pleased to see how well Santiago responded after being down 5-3 in first set,” said head coach Bob Bayliss. “It was very impressive to watch him come back and just lose one game the rest of the way. Andrew did not play his best, but I was encouraged at the way he competed.”
Montoya fell behind early to Evgeny Samolov of Bradley, 5-3, in the opening set, but rallied for a 7-6 victory and then blitzed Samolov in the second set, 6-0, to secure the straight set victory. Montoya, the No. 9 seed in a qualifying draw that will send eight players into the main draw, will face Nick Boulieris of Marquette Friday morning at 9:30 a.m.
Roth, the No. 4 seed in the qualifying draw, dropped his opening round match to Chuck Levaque of Eastern Illinois, 6-4, 7-6. Roth did rebound with a convincing victory over Joe Venegas (Valpo), 7-5, 6-2.
Friday also will see the commencement of the 64-team doubles main draw. Senior Ryan Keckley and junior Sheeva Parbhu, the No. 2 seed, will face Branko Kuzmanovic and Kurt Zaske of Purdue in the opening round at 7:00 p.m. Senior Stephen Bass and Roth will play No. 9 seed Drew Eberly and Justin Kronauge of Ohio State at 5:30 p.m. Sophomore Brett Helgeson and senior Barry King are seeded No. 12 and will face Eric Fey and Adriano Liccardo of Illinois-Chicago at 5:00 p.m., while senior Irackli Akhvlediani and Montoya will play Brian Batt and Ted Dahmas of Wright State at 4:00 p.m.
ITA Midwest Championships (October 19)
Singles – Qualifying
Chuck Levaque (Eastern Illinois) def. [4] Andrew Roth (ND), 6-4, 7-6
[4] Andrew Roth (ND) def. Joe Venegas (Valpo), 7-5, 6-2
[9] Santiago Montoya def. Evgeny Samolov (Bradley), 7-6, 6-0
Note: Numbers in brackets are seedings. Numbers preceding names are ITA national rankings.
— ND —