Oct. 6, 2008

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss tennis duo, Patricio Alvarado and Felipe Sylva, cruised through the men's open doubles in the B Draw at the Georgia Tech Fall Invitational to claim the doubles' title.

Alvarado and Sylva finished the weekend with a 4-0 record, posting wins over Hunter Mills and Powell Porter (Auburn), 8-4; Michael Pereira and Ryan Ybarra (UNC-Wilmington), 8-6; Milan Krnjetin and Michel Monterio (Auburn), 9-8 (7-5); and Anton Nikolvo and Alex Wetherell (UNC-Wilmington), 8-1.

"This doubles' team played perhaps their best match this year," Coach Teddy Viator said. "Felipe played extremely well. I was pleased with all of their performances this weekend."

Alvarado went 4-1 in singles, defeating Charlie Jones (Vanderbilt) in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4, before losing to No. 23 Jamie Hunt (Georgia), 6-4, 6-4. He, then, won three matches in the consolation draw with wins over Jordan Walters (Furman), 6-1, 6-2; Kevin Fleck (Clemson), 6-0, 6-1; and No. 109 Christian Vitulli (Georgia); 6-1, 1-0, ret.

"Patricio continues to improve from match to match," Viator said. "He had a good showing this weekend and I believe he can be one of the better players in the country this year."

Markus Wessinghage and Sylva also finished with 1-1 records in singles competition. Wessinghage defeated Kyle Wishing (MTSU), 63-, 7-6 (9-7) and lost to Nick Maruillo (Auburn), 6-3, 6-2.

Sylva knocked off William Adeimy (Georgia State), 6-0, 6-0, then, lost to Alex Petropoulos (Auburn), 3.6, 6-3, 6-0.

The Golden Eagle team returns to action, Oct. 11-12, for the Hammond Futures.