Sports > September 25, 2008

By Alex Botoman | Staff writer

Members of the Wake Forest men’s tennis team recorded strong individual performances as they represented Wake at the Southern Intercollegiate Championships Sept. 19-21 in Athens, Ga. Wake players went a combined 15-6 in singles and 5-1 in doubles. The Deacs opted to send some of their less experienced players to the tournament.

Freshmen David Hopkins and Joost Vogel made their collegiate debut, while Wake’s two nationally-ranked players, senior Cory Parr and junior Steve Forman did not compete.

The tournament consisted of three flights of singles and two flights of doubles.

Junior Andrew Brasseaux and sophomore Jason Morgenstern competed in the top singles flight.

Senior Carlos Salmon and sophomore Jonathan Wolff were entered in the second singles flight.

Hopkins and Vogel played in the third flight.

Salmon, Wolff and Hopkins were the top performers for the Deacons as they all made it to the semifinals of their respective flights.

Wolff stormed through his first three matches losing only a combined six games but was defeated in a marathon semifinal 6-7, 7-6, 6-7 by Richard Cowden of Middle Tennessee State.

The Deacons didn’t have as much success in the top flight as Morgenstern and Brasseaux both won one match before being eliminated.

Morgenstern scored an upset in his first match, knocking off No. 80 ranked Vijay Paul from Vanderbilt in straight sets before falling to Georgia Tech’s No. 118 Josh Varela in the Round of 32.

Brasseaux won his first match against Tyler Hochwalt of Florida before losing to Nicolas Delgado DeRobles of Virginia Tech.

In the third flight, Vogel picked up a win in his first collegiate match before bowing out to Aaron Carpenter of Duke.

The Deacons also had a strong showing in the doubles flights.

Teams of Hopkins/Brasseaux and Salmon/Vogel both made it to the quarterfinals of the second flight before they had to withdraw for travel reasons.

Wake’s Morgenstern and Wolff teamed up in the top flight, and won one match before losing in the Round of 16.

This was the 41st edition of the Southern Intercollegiate Championships, which is hosted annually by the University of Georgia.

Notable participants this year included Duke, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, N.C. State, Vanderbilt and Virginia Tech.

Parr and Forman, who are the No. 2-ranked doubles team in the country, in addition to being ranked No. 24 and 38 in singles, respectively, will travel to Tulsa, Okla., to represent Wake at the D’Novo All-American Championships, beginning Oct. 4.