April 25, 2009

Results

Monroeville, Pa. - Senior fifth-single Ricky Cuellar staged an impressive comeback and sophomore Chris Huynh clinched the 49ers 4-0 victory over Saint Joseph's at the Atlantic 10 Championships, Saturday.

"That was a heck of a 4-0 match," said 49ers mentor Jim Boykin.

Cuellar dropped the first set of his match, 6-1, but responded with a 6-2 win in set two before taking the third set tiebreaker, 10-8 to claim the point at #5 singles. Shortly thereafter freshman Anthony Davison completed his 6-2; 6-4 victory at #3 singles for the 49ers, who had already won the doubles point.

That set the stage for Huynh, being looked to after the 49ers had dropped the first set in the each of the other three matches. Huynh won his first set 6-4 and added a 6-4 win in the second set to clinch the victory.

With the win, the 49ers advance to tomorrow's fifth-place match at 8:00 a.m. They will face either Temple or Duquesne.

"We we're disapointed, yesterday," Boykin said of their elimination from championship consideration at the hands of St. Bonaventure. "We felt we had enough team to win the tournament. But St. Bonny played better and give them credit. We were disappointed but we came back today. (Saint Joseph's) has kids from year's past - seniors - and they are good players. Tough players. It was a dogfight. We lost the first set at 1, 2, 4 and 5. Ricky battled back at 5 and Chris served for the match for us.

"We look forward to one more match. Our guys are playing hard the whole time. they're learning. They need to play in the present because the future can make you nervous. Stay in the present and play hard."