The Wake Forest men's tennis team made the short trip to Chapel Hill, Oct. 25-27, to compete in the ITA Region II Championships. Junior David Loewenthal and senior Mike Murray both performed well, but fell short of the singles title when they were eliminated in the quarterfinals. The Deacons did not fare as well in the doubles side of the draw. Both of the Deacons pairs were ousted in the second round of the tournament.

Loewenthal was the No. 2 seed in the tournament and won three matches before being upset by Trystan Meniane from the University of North Carolina, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. It was a hard-fought match and after winning the second set, it looked as if Loewenthal might be able to rally for a victory, but Meniane proved to be too strong.

Loewenthal had his serve broken twice in the final set and could not recover. On his way to the quarterfinal defeat he had three victories over competitors from Virginia, Duke and Winthrop. Loewenthal made quick work of Chris Gonyer from Virginia 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of singles.

Jonathan Stokke from Duke got off to a fast start by winning the first set but Loewenthal eventually disposed of him, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. In the second round the Deacons top player only needed two sets to defeat Clayton Almeida from Winthrop, 6-2, 6-4. Loewenthal was at the top of his game when handling the 13th-seeded Almeida. Loewenthal's fall in the quaterfinals came as a disappointment after this convincing victory.

Murray's road to the quarterfinals was much longer than his teammate's. He played his way into the main draw by winning three qualifying round matches. Murray defeated Stephen Ward from William & Mary 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in first round singles and then beat Valter Palva from Hampton 6-4, 6-3 in the second round.

To assure himself a spot in the main draw, he beat Geoff Boyd from UNC, 7-5, 6-4. Murray continued his strong play in the singles draw and came back from behind to defeat Sasa Ljumic from Campbell 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of singles and then beat Daniel Pinchbeck from UNC, 6-4, 6-2.

The unranked Murray saw his winning streak become even more impressive when he beat the 5th-seeded Angelo Niculescu from South Carolina 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4 in the Round of 16.

There was no shame in Murray's loss to Florian Marquardt from Virginia Commonwealth 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4) in the quarterfinals. Marquardt is the No. 34 collegiate player in the country and was the No. 4 in the tournament.

The Deacons' Trent Brendon, a senior, also qualified for the singles draw by winning three straight matches. Brendon defeated two Seminoles on his way to qualifying. He beat Jeff Grollmand, 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 and then won 6-1, 6-7, 7-5 over Rodrigo Laub. He secured his spot in the singles draw by defeating Peter Shults from Duke 7-6 (4), 6-3. In the main draw Brendon did not make it out of the first round, losing to Romain Jurd from Florida State 6-4, 7-6.

Senior David Bere was seeded 15th in the tournament and had a fine showing before losing to Marquardt 7-6, 6-4. Bere defeated his first two competitors without dropping a set. In the first round he beat Santiago Falla from Charleston Southern 6-1, 7-5 and in the second round ousted Chip Webb from Florida State 6-1, 7-6 (3).

Sophomore Derrick Spice destroyed Zalan Kiss from Charleston Southern, winning 6-1, 6-1 in the first round of singles, but then fell 6-4, 6-4 to Timo Siebert from the College of Charleston in the second round. In the doubles draw, the Deacons top team of Brendon and Loewethal won their first round match versus Kenneth Brown and Dwayne Pagon from Howard 8-2. They then lost a close match in the second round to Rodrigo Laub and Matt Cloer from Florida State, 9-8.

Murray's excellent play continued and he, along with teammate Simpson, earned their way into the doubles main draw by defeating three opponents in qualifying. Their success continued when they squared off against the 2nd-seeded team, in their third match of the day. The Deacon duo thwarted the 39th-ranked team of Furman's James Cameron and Patrick Fillnow 8-4 in the first round of the doubles main draw. The Deacon team was elated with the upset victory, but the happiness did not last long,

Murray and Simpson fell in the second round 8-6 to Alex Herrera and Romain Jurd from Florida State.

In other action, the Wake Forest team of freshman Brett Ross and Spice dropped their first round doubles match 8-5 to Herrera and Jurd from Florida State.

Ross won his first round match of singles qualifying play, beating Glauco Nascimento from Hampton 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, but then lost in the second round 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 to Stephen Amritraj from Duke.

This was the last competition for men's tennis this fall. Their next action will kick off their spring season and will take place on Jan. 11-13, at the Hilton Waikaloa Kona Invitational, in Kona, Hawaii.