Jan. 21, 2006

The 2006 season for the men's tennis team of Florida Atlantic University kicked off on Saturday, as the Owls dropped a 5-2 decision at No. 11 Florida State University in the Scott Speicher Tennis Center.

FAU fell to 0-1 on the season while FSU moved to 1-0.

The Owls faced a tough set of doubles opponents, as the Seminoles swept FAU in the three matches. David Demers and Kevin Obletz fell to FSU's top tandem of Sam Chang and Chris Westerhof, 8-4, as did Akin Akman and J.P. Bonnassar to Chris Cloer and Jason Hood in the third match. During the second match, FAU's duo of Mauricio Paiz and Gianfranco Dossena were unable to mount any momentum against the nation's #63 team of Maciek Sykut and Andrew Bailey, falling 8-2.

In singles, Hood wasted no time at the No. 6 position and beat Akin Akman (6-2, 6-0) almost an hour before any of his teammates. Florida State's third point came from 49th-ranked Chang at the top spot, who overcame Kevin Obletz, 6-1, 6-4. At the No. 2 court, Westerhof took care of David Demers (6-2, 6-3) and No. 58 Sykut registered a 6-4, 6-4 win against Gianfranco Dossena at court No. 4 for the Florida State victory.

Florida State's dominance continued in the singles matches, where #49 Chang defeated Obletz 6-1, 6-4; Westerhof picked up a 6-2,6-3 win over Demers, Sykut edged Dossena 6-4 in consecutive games, and Hood rallied past Akman 6-2 and 6-0.

The Owls picked up their first point of the season when Bounassar defeated Cloer in the third position, 4-6,7-5, 1-0(7) in a tightly contested match. Paiz would score the Owls' second point when he defeated baily 6-3, 5-7, 1-0(8).

FAU will continue its opening weekend when the Owls travel to Troy, AL to face conference rival Troy on Sunday.