Oct. 19, 2007

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Sophomore Renzo Airaldi (Lima, Peru/Domingo Faustino Sarmiento) and junior Sandy Franz (Duesseldorf, Germany/Berufskolleg Hilden) have advanced to the third round of open doubles at the ITA Mideast Regionals on Friday evening at the University of Virginia's Boyd Tinsley Courts. The duo's opponents in the second round, 24th-ranked Houston Barrick and Dominic Inglot, defaulted due to injury.

Now, the Spartans top doubles pair will move on to face Atlantic Sun foes Evgeny Slesarev and Andrew Veeder of Gardner-Webb for the right to reach the quarterfinals on Saturday at 1 p.m. Airaldi and Franz have faced half the duo earlier this season, downing Veeder and Grant VanRensburg, 8-3, during the USC Upstate Fall Tournament on Sept. 14-15. Slesarev, a sophomore, led the Bulldogs with 14 wins last season and was a First Team All-Atlantic Sun Conference selection, but sophomore Javier Tori (Lima, Peru/Markham College) defeated Slesarev, 6-3, 7-6 at the Upstate Fall Tournament.

The winner of the match will compete in the quarterfinals at 2:30 p.m., where they will face the winner of an All-North Carolina match between Benjamin Carlotti and Andrew Crone and Kyle Baker and Will Plyler.