The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Tennis Team Leads Tulane As Weather Suspends Play
4/20/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 20, 2012
ORLANDO, Fla. ----- Stormy weather in central Florida suspended play here Friday as the UAB men's tennis team holds a 3-1 lead on Tulane in quarterfinal round action at the 2012 Conference USA Championship.
The No. 4-seed Blazers and fifth-seeded Green Wave had to halt play at approximately 4:30 p.m. ET and had hoped to get back on the courts to finish their match. However, rain and lightning conditions at the UCF Tennis Complex forced tournament officials to suspend the action just after 8:00 p.m.
The teams are scheduled to resume their match Saturday morning at a time to be determined.
UAB and Tulane are looking to advance to semifinal round action to take on top-seeded Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane survived a scare from No. 9 seed UCF Friday, 4-3.
Due to the threat of inclement weather, the Blazers (16-8, 3-2 C-USA) and Green Wave (12-10, 3-5 C-USA) started the match in singles rather than in customary doubles play.
UAB grabbed a 3-0 lead with wins at No. 4, 6 and 2 singles. Senior Daniel Moser got his team on the board first with his 7-5, 6-4 win at No. 4 over Tulane's Adam Bernstein. Tom Puetz made it 2-0 Blazers with a 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory at the No. 6 spot over Takum Ohashi.
Junior David Zimmerman put UAB up 3-0 with a 7-5, 7-6 win at No. 2 singles over Joe Young.
But the Green Wave shortly began to cut into the Blazer cushion as Rodrigo Rappaccioli rallied past UAB's Lucas Dirube at No. 5 singles, 5-7, 6-2, 6-3, to trim the score to 3-1.
The two matches in progress when play was suspended -- No. 1 and 3 singles -- are both in the third set.
At No. 1 singles, Tulane's Idan Mark leads Blazer senior Danny Manlow, 6-2, 6-7, 5-2, while the match at No. 3 singles between the Wave's Shaye Wali and UAB's Chris Helliar is in a deadlock as Helliar won the first set 6-4 before Wali came back for a narrow 7-6 win in the second. The players are knotted at 4-4 in the third and decisive set.
