Men's Tennis Sends Six to UVa Fall Invitational
9/24/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
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Alabama men's tennis will participate in its second tournament of the fall this weekend as it sends six competitors to the fourth annual UVa Fall Invitational. Fifteen schools and 19 ranked singles players will be present at three-day event that will feature two 48-player singles draws and three 16-player doubles draws.
Alabama head coach Billy Pate originally planned to split his team up this weekend, sending three players to UVa and three to the Baylor Invitational. However, the Baylor Invitational was cancelled last Wednesday due to the imposing threat of Hurricane Rita.
The Tide's Javier Bes is fresh off last weekend's run to the finals at the Crimson Tide Fall Invitational and could make some noise in Charlottesville, Va. Bes is 4-2 on the fall with a big upset victory over No. 24 Robert Searle. Teammate Billy Mertz (1-3) will look to recapture the form that saw him win 12 of his first 13 matches a year ago as a freshman and Dan Buikema has started his freshman campaign at 4-1.
"This weekend will provide a good opportunity for us to continue building from last weekend's season-opening tournament where I thought we had mixed results," Pate said. "I saw many things that were very positive but I saw some areas we need to continue to get better. We will see outstanding national-level competition."
Play will begin each day at 8 a.m. cst. For more information on the tournament, visit www.virginiasports.com.
