October 8, 2002
Taylor Wins ITA Regional Singles
Junior Advances to Nationals Later this Month

SALISBURY, MD -- Washington College junior Peter Taylor (Canton, CT/Canton) defeated Mary Washington's Conor Smith, 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, yesterday to win the ITA South Atlantic Regional Singles Championship. Taylor advances to play in the ITA National Championships, which will be held in Corpus Christi Texas, from October 17th-20th. Taylor, along with sophomore Rafael Martins (Vitoria, Brazil/Prof. Anibal de Freitas/Cristelo) also advanced to the semifinal round in doubles at the Regional tournament, which began on Saturday and was hosted by Salisbury University.

Taylor began his run in singles play with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Justin Durand of Swarthmore in the first round and then defeated K.C. Schaefer of Washington & Lee, 6-2, 6-2 in the second round. A 6-0, 6-1 win over Johns Hopkins's Kevin Alford in round three put Taylor in the quarterfinals, where he defeated Washington & Lee's Paul McClure, 6-3, 6-0. In the semifinal round, Taylor bested Nicholas Peel of Salisbury, 7-5, 3-6, 6-1, to earn his spot in the final match against Smith.

Martins advanced the next furthest among Shoremen in singles play. He topped Carnegie Mellon's CarlYang, 6-0, 6-2, in round one, Swarthmore's Zach Rodd 1-6, 7-5, 6-1, in round two and Methodists's Glen Kitner, 6-1, 6-2, in the third round. Martins was ousted in the quarterfinals by Mary Washington's Dan Uyar, 6-3, 6-4. Senior Louis Blanchette (Dieppe, New Brunswick, Canada/Mathieu-Martin) and freshman Maciek Prytula (Szczecin, Poland) advaned to the second round. Blanchette topped Marcus Dudley of Methodist, 6-2, 6-2, in the first round, while Prytula defeated Mitch Reading of Muhlenberg, 6-1, 6-2.

Senior Alvaro Prado (Guatemala City, Guatemala/Liceo Javier) lost, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, to Washington & Lee's Jeff Lusk in the first round of the main draw, but then marched through the consolation bracket on his way to winning the consolation final. He defeated Boris Sofman of Carnegie Mellon, 8-4, in the first consolation round, and handled Patrick Murphrey of Christoper Newport, 8-1, in consolation round two. In the consolation quarterfinals, Prado topped Yang, 8-3, and then advanced to the final match when his semifinal opponent, Jason Zucker of Carnegie Mellon, withdrew. In the final, Prado defeated Santiago Gindre of Lynchburg, 6-4, 6-3.

In doubles play, Taylor and Martins defeated Matt Fleissig and Jeff Kraft of Muhlenberg, 8-4, in round one. In the second round, Taylor and Martins knocked off Lawrence Lee and Joshua Tischuk of Carnegie Mellon, 8-2. The WC duo topped the Methodist team of Kitner and Adam Hunter, 9-7, in the quarterfinals, before falling to Smith and Paul Bristow of Mary Washington, 9-7, in the semifinal round.

Blanchette and sophomore Asfand Farouk (Karachi, Pakistan/City School) won their first round match, 8-4, against Virginia Wesleyan's John Tumasheski and Alex Underhill, before being eliminated in round two. Prado and Prytula lost their first round match, but came back to defeat Durand and Rodd of Swarthmore, 9-7, and Brian Barkauska and Cameron Parke of Muhlenberg, 8-4, in consolation play before being eliminated in the consolation semifinals.

WC Match Results