March 31, 2001

Chicago, Ill. - Men's tennis coach Chuck Cunningham does not like to be on the losing end of a match, but he liked what he saw in the Flames' 7-0 defeat at the hands of Hawaii at the UIC Outdoor Courts on Saturday afternoon.

"It was a good effort on the part of the guys," Cunningham said. "I saw some signs of improvement and I saw some encouraging things out there as well."

Freshman Jon Schmidt battled Hawaii's Amandeep Singh but could not finish as he dropped a 6-0, 1-6, 6-2 decision at No. 1 singles.

What was most impressive to Cunningham was the performance of his No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams.

Senior Jason Kerr and junior Wade Clark pushed Reginaldo Maralejo and Malino Oda to the limit before dropping a 9-7 decision. Sophomores Nick Bodmer and Angel Ochoa also went the distance with Hawaii's Jorge Gonzalez and Malino Oda before suffering the same 9-7 fate.

"We're becoming battle-tested for conference," Cunningham said. "We're pretty close to the stretch run now."

UIC will be back in action on Thursday when they host St. Louis at 3 PM at the UIC Outdoor Courts.

Hawaii 7, UIC 0

Singles

No. 1 Amandeep Singh (H) d. Jon Schmidt (UIC), 6-0, 1-6, 6-2.
No. 2 Reginaldo Maralejo (H) d. Nick Bodmer (UIC), 6-1, 6-2.
No. 3 Jorge Gonzalez (H) d. Nesar Nayak (UIC), 6-2, 6-3.
No. 4 Malino Oda (H) d. Wade Clark (UIC), 6-1, 6-2.
No. 5 Fransisco Brignole (H) d. Jason Kerr (UIC), 6-1, 6-2.
No. 6 Lincoln Leeder (H) d. Angel Ochoa (UIC), 6-1, 6-0.

Doubles
No.1 Singh/Leeder (H) d. Nayak/Schmidt (UIC), 8-1.
No.2 Maralejo/Oda(H) d. Kerr/Clark (UIC), 9-7.
No.3 Gonzalez/Brignole (H) d. Bodmer/Ochoa (UIC), 9-7.