Oct. 22, 2004

BLACKSBURG, VA - Junior Antonio Aniello won a pair of grueling three set matches on Thursday afternoon in the qualifying singles round to reach the main draw of the 2004 Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Northeast Men's Regional Championships. The event runs through Oct. 26 and is being held at the Burleson/Burrows Tennis Center on the Virginia Tech campus. Classmate A.J. Garabedian won his opening round match but was ousted the second round.

Aniello, who joins teammates Francisco Velazquez and Jimmy Holland in the main draw of 128, topped Buffalo's Yules Hadisubroto in his first match and then topped Boston College's Derrick Chou in round two. Aniello avenged losses earlier this season by a couple of his teammates to each player.

Hadisubroto edged Garabedian last weekend at Army, but Aniello rallied after dropping the opeing set to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

He stayed on the court to face Chou, who topped Miachel Portonova earlier this season at the ECAC Championship. Against Chou Aniello took the first set with relative ease, dropped the second set, but then cruised to the third set win, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.

Garabedian, meanwhile, needed a third set tie-breaker to advance out of the first round. He bested Colgate's Marshall Wheeler, 6-1, 1-6, 7-6 (7-1). IN the second round however, he came up just short falling in a couple of tie-breaks, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-3).

The singles finalists and doubles champion from this event will earn spots in the November 4-7 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships at the University of Michigan. Seventeen ITA Regional Championships for NCAA Division I men and women are taking place over the last two weekends of October at campuses throughout the country.