Martins Advances to CACC Individual Tournament Semi-Finals; Earns All-Conference Honors

Ricardo Martins won two matches and advanced to Saturday's semi-final round of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Individual Tournament singles competition held on Friday at Chestnut Hill College. On Saturday, Martins lost to Manoli Sgouros in the semi-finals.

In reaching the semi-finals, Ricardo Martins (Idegeio Pentagono/Sao Paolo, Brazil), a senior, earned a spot on this year's CACC All-Conference Men's Tennis Team, joining singles and doubles finalists Adrian Torroella-Cruz and Sgouros of Philadelphia University, doubles finalists Julius Twyman and Carson Richter of Chestnut Hill College and single semi-finalist, Joe Boyle, also of Chestnut Hill College. Entering the singles competition, Martins had an overall singles record of 9-7.

 Martins opened the competition on Friday with a 10-1 win over Jamal Loper of Bloomfield College to advance to the quarterfinals. Martins defeated Kyle Burke of Philadelphia University, 6-2, 3-6, 1-0 (10-8) to earn his spot in the semi-finals the next day where he dropped a 7-6 (7-4), 6-0 decision to Sgouros who later lost to defending CACC Individual Champion Torroella-Cruz 6-2, 7-5.

The Men's Tennis Team also earned the CACC Team Sportsmanship Award. The CACC Team Sportsmanship Award is given to the team in each sponsored conference sport that best exemplifies the spirit of athletic competition and sportsmanship. The voting for this award is done by the league's seven coaches. The USP men's athletic programs have now won three of the five CACC Team Sportsmanship Awards that have been given out so far during the 2009-2010 season. The men's tennis team joins the men's cross country team and men's basketball team as three CACC Team Sportsmanship Award winners from the institution.

The Devils also had two other men's tennis players competing at the tournament. Francisco Garcia (Don Cesar Gascon/Balcarce Buenos Aires, Argentina)won his opening round match, defeating Pat Joson of Chestnut Hill College 10-5 before Joson's teammate, Boyle, handed Garcia a 6-3, 6-3 loss in the quarterfinals. Bill Fine (West Chester East HS/West Chester, Pa.) lost his opening round match to Sgouros, 10-4. Fine also teamed up with Martins to reach the semi-finals of the doubles competition, defeating Getka and Loughnane of Caldwell 8-0 before losing to eventual champions Torroella-Cruz and Sgouros in the semi-finals 8-2.