October 23, 2008
Tech concludes Fall season at Crimson Tide Invitational
Seven Hokies participate in tournament

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Several members of the Virginia Tech men’s tennis team will participate this weekend in the Crimson Tide Fall Invitational in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The tournament includes 116 players from 18 schools and is hosted by the University of Alabama. Matches will be played at the University of Alabama Tennis Stadium, the Alabama Recreation Courts and the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility.

The tournament features eight singles draws with 16 competitors in each and two doubles draws of 32 teams each. There will also be a consolation round for both the singles and doubles play. The 18 institutions represented at this year’s Fall Championships are Alabama, Auburn, Chattanooga, Clemson, Georgia Southern, Illinois, Jacksonville State, Jacksonville University, Memphis, Mississippi State, Samford, South Florida, Southern Mississippi, Troy, UAB, , UT-Martin, Vanderbilt and Virginia Tech.

A unique feature of the event is that all of the singles divisions are named in honor of former Alabama football coaches and players. Preston Lemon (Sr., Roanoke, Va.) will play Vinny Cravelro (Jacksonville Univ.) in the Bart Starr bracket while Jonathan Pine (Fr., Vienna, Va.) takes on Hunter Mills (Auburn) in the Gene Stallings division. Elsewhere, Patrick Daciek (Fr., Severna Park, Md.) plays Abraham Souza (Illinois) in the Joe Namath draw and Corrado Tocci (Fr., Reggio Emilia, Italy) takes on Matkus Wessingage (Southern Miss) in the Steadman Shealy division.

Two Hokies will participate in the Bear Bryant bracket as Pedro Graber (Jr., Santiago, Chile) faces Billy Martz (Alabama) and Yoann Re (Jr., Verdun, Quebec, Canada) battles No. 4 seed Jamal Adderly (South Florida). Zachary Pine (Fr., Vienna, Va.) snaked his way to a bye in the Ken Stabler division and will play his first match later in the day.

In Red Doubles, Re/Tocci face Bastian Maucher/Mario Silva (Troy) while Daciek/Graber, the No. 5 seeds, received a bye. Zachary Pine/Lemon play Michael Jung/Trey Walston (Alabama) in the White Doubles while Jonathan Pine teams with Oscar Muchuca (Southern Miss) as the duo takes on Creighton Blanchard/Houssam Yassina (Alabama).

The tournament will open with the first round of doubles and first two rounds of singles on Friday. Saturday will feature the doubles round of 16 and quarterfinals along with the semifinals of singles play. Competition will wrap up Sunday with both the semifinals and finals of doubles along with the singles finals. Matches begin at 9:00 a.m. (CST) each day.

For updates on Virginia Tech men's tennis, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_MTennis).

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