March 8, 2001

BOCA RATON, FL -

For the first time in nearly two years, Florida Atlantic University was defeated at home. In a battle of two nationally ranked teams, the #62 Owls fell to #54 Georgia Tech 4-3 Thursday afternoon in Boca Raton. The loss snaps FAU's five-match winning streak, and it's the first time since March 26, 1999 the Owls have been defeated at home, a span of 10 straight home victories. The last team to defeat FAU at home was also Georgia Tech.

In Thursday's match, FAU (6-3) started out by winning two of the three doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead. At the no. 1 singles, Doug Devriendt extended his personal winning streak to nine with a 6-0, 7-5 victory over Romain Coirault. An FAU victory at no. 5 by Cristian Paiz coupled with two Yellow Jacket wins at no. 2 and no. 6 gave FAU a 3-2 lead with two matches remaining.

The Yellow Jackets came back to win both to take the 4-3 victory. The win was solidified with Georgia Tech's David Wright defeating FAU's Martin Jirak 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in the only singles match to go three sets.

FAU next hosts Hampton University Friday afternoon at 2:00pm at the PBCC courts adjacent to FAU.

Singles

1. Doug Devriendt (FAU) d. Romain Coirault (GT) 6-0, 7-5.

2. Roger Anderson (GT) d. Yalin Bilgin (FAU) 6-2, 6-4.

3. David Wright (GT) d. Martin Jirak (FAU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

4. Stephen Moros (GT) d. Fabio Faerman (FAU) 6-4, 6-4.

5. Cristian Paiz (FAU) d. Alex Navinkov (GT) 6-2, 6-4.

6. Joao Menano (GT) d. Sandro Spotti (FAU) 6-4, 6-2.

Doubles

1. Bilgin/Jirak (FAU) d. Anderson/Wright (GT) 8-4.

2. Coirault/Menano (GT) d. Faerman/Spotti (FAU) 8-6.

3. Devriendt/Paiz (FAU) d. Sergio Aguirre/Jason Jeong (GT) 8-2.