Oct. 18, 2012

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Four Saint Joseph's men's tennis players emerged from the qualifying draw at the 2012 ITA Atlantic Regionals at the University of Virginia on Thursday. Senior Tommy Gates, junior Dan Barrus, sophomore Pierre Brondeau, and freshman Andres Urrea all reached Friday's main draw.

Gates won both his matches in straight sets, taking down Guanhua of Penn State, 6-1, 6-2, before topping Villanova's Tim Abbracciamento, 6-4, 7-6.

Barrus won in straight sets as well, moving past Hunter McCawley of UMBC, 6-4, 7-6, and Samuel Lemberger of Norfolk State, 6-3, 6-3.

Brondeau defeated Scott Keaton of George Mason, 7-5, 6-4, before battling back to defeat Penn State's Ramy Labna, 0-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Urrea topped George Mason's Danny Naja in his first match, 6-2, 7-5, and then cruised past Temple's Hicham Belksirr, 6-3, 6-1.

Graduate student Jeff Kessler won his first match, dispatching Evan Ward of Morgan State, 6-3, 7-6, before falling to UMBC's Kamal Patel, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0. Sophomore Max Montague also won a match, taking a 0-6, 7-6, 7-5 result from Aaron Capitel of George Mason before capitulating to Bucknell's Evan Zimmer, 6-3, 6-4.

Senior Erik Thunberg fell to Peter Bello of Norfolk State, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, in his qualifying match.

Main draw singles and doubles play kicks off on Friday at the Snyder Tennis Center.