April 18, 2008

Results |Tulsa 4, USM 1

IRVING, Texas - The two-time defending Conference USA champion and top seed Tulsa eliminated No. 8 seed Southern Miss (8-14), 4-1, early Friday afternoon in the second match of the 2008 Conference USA Men's Tennis Championship held at the new Turpin Tennis Stadium located on SMU's campus in Dallas.

Tulsa (19-4) advanced to semifinal action with wins at the No. 1, 2 and 5 singles, plus earned the doubles point.

Hurricane senior and 22nd-ranked Arnau Brugues cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Southern Miss's Domagoj Anic for the team's first singles point. Following Brugues was Will Gray and Andy Connelly with identical match scores of 6-2, 6-2 over Jan Burmeister and Diego Machuca, respectively.

TU's doubles point was earned by a pair of nationally-ranked tandems at No. 1 and 3. Leaving the courts first was the 25th-ranked team of Connelly and Ross Cunningham. The duo dismissed Southern Miss's Diego Machuca and Markus Wessinghage, 8-1, while 38th-ranked pair of Victor Kolik and Alberto Sottocorno defeated Oscar Machuca and Domagoj Anic, 8-5, for the score.

Tulsa will face UCF on Saturday at 11 a.m. The championship match is set for Sunday at Noon. The C-USA champion receives the league's automatic bid to the 2008 NCAA Championships.