March 11, 2005

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- The Old Dominion men's tennis team fell 4-0 to No. 24 Flordia State in their first match at the National Blue/Gray Tennis. The 64th-ranked Monarchs will return to action later today against #35 Louisville at 4 pm Central time.

The loss dropped the Monarchs to 5-7 overall as Old Dominion took on its seventh ranked team of the season in the Seminoles.

The Blue Gray National Tennis Classic, founded by the late Jack Bushman, dates to 1949. In later years, his son and touring tennis pro Jackie Bushman helped him run the tournament. The tournament grew rapidly into a premier event and its roster has held such future Wimbledon and U.S. Open champions as Tony Trabert (1951) and Stan Smith (1961). It also hosted the then future 1985 Wimbledon singles finalist Kevin Curren, 1993 French Open Doubles Champions Murphy and Luke Jensen; 1996 Wimbledon singles finalist Mali Vai Washington, and current U.S. Davis Cup Team member James Black.

Participating Teams: Harvard, Notre Dame, Tulane, Florida State, Rice, Boise State, Texas A&M - Corpus Christi; San Diego, Tulsa, Fresno State, North Carolina State, Old Dominion, Brown, William and Mary and Colorado.

No. 24 Florida State 4, No. 64 Old Dominion 0

Singles:

No. 1: #83 Mat Cloer (FSU) d. #25 Izak van der Merwe (ODU) 6-0, 6-2
No. 2: Ytai Abougzir (FSU v. Henrique Cancado (ODU) 5-7 (Unfinished)
No. 3: Jeff Groslimond (FSU) v. Eidy Igarashi (ODU) 5-7 (Unfinished)
No. 4: Chris Westerhof (FSU) d. Adriano Mello (ODU) 6-1, 6-1
No. 5: Jonathas Sucupira (FSU) v. Rodrigo Souza (ODU) 6-0, 6-5 (Unfinished)
No. 6: Sam Chang (FSU) d. Juliano Cirimbelli (ODU) 6-3, 6-4

Doubles:

No. 1: #60 Groslimond/Westerhof (FSU) d. #47 van der Merwe/Grover (ODU) 8-5

No. 2: #42 Cloer/Abougzir (FSU) d. Igarashi/Souza (ODU) 8-4

No. 3: Sucupira/Chang (FSU) v. Cirimbelli/Cancado (ODU) 6-4 (Unfinished)