Men's Tennis Falls at No. 14 Auburn

Jan. 31, 2003

AUBURN - The Colorado men's tennis team narrowly opened the season with an upset win, falling 4-3 to No. 14 Auburn, Friday afternoon at the Luther Young Tennis Complex.

It was the first match of the season for both schools.

CU started the day on the short end, losing the doubles portion, 2-1. Senior Maciej Dilaj and freshman Chad Tsuda teamed up at No. 3 doubles for an 8-4 win, however, the host Tigers clinched the doubles portion taking identical 8-4 scores at No. 1 and 2.

In singles, Auburn's Rameez Junaid, ranked 10th nationally and teammate Rodrigo Minozzo pushed Auburn ahead 3-0 winning straight-set points at No. 1 and No. 4 singles. Colorado, however quickly answered evening the match at three securing singles points at No. 2, No. 5 and No. 6.

At No. 2 singles, Dilaj defeated Andy Columbo, 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3 in a tough three-set match, while freshman Marko Bundalo followed with a three-set triumph of his own over Markus Schiller, 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-5 at No. 5. The Buffaloes took their third singles point of the day as sophomore Jon Magnes cruised past Andre Boz, 6-4, 6-2 at No. 6.

Auburn clinched the match at No. 3 and avoided the team upset as Tom George needed three sets to defeat CU freshman Patrick Sadovnick, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.

"We have the ability to be a good team," said first-year head coach Sam Winterbotham. "Today, we competed and played very well against a very good Auburn team. If we play like we did today, we'll come back from this weekend with a .500 record."

Colorado ranked 64th nationally continues its road trip through the state of Alabama as the Buffs take on No. 43 South Alabama, Sunday, Feb. 2.