Oct. 25, 2005

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Texas-Arlington seniors Niels Buksik and Sandy Farquharson lead five other Mavericks at the ITA Regionals this past weekend at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.

Farquharson (London, England), seeded 11th in the tournament, responded with a 7-6, 6-2 victory over Rice's Rodrigo Gabriel in the second round. He followed that up with a victory over Texas' Luis Diaz Barriga, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6, to advance to the round of 16. There he bested Texas A&M's Matt Bain, 6-0, 6-2. In the quarterfinals, Farquharson fell to SMU's Peter Oredesson, 6-1, 6-7, 6-2.

Buksik (Stuttgart, Germany), who fell in the opening round of the tournament to Rice's Hoony Shin, 6-1, 6-1, rallied to win four straight matches and finish second in the consolation bracket. He defeated Texas Southern's Kurt Gattiker, 7-5, 6-0 in the opening round of the consolation. Buksik followed that up with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Prairie View A&M's Andy Narido and then defeated PVAMU's David Herrera, 6-3, 6-2, to advance to the semifinal round. There he defeated Texas Southern's Frank Suarez, 6-4, 6-4. That set up a consolation final matchup against Texas' Hubert Chodkiewicz in which he fell, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3.

The other five players all won their opening round matches before falling in the second round.

In doubles play. Farquharson teamed up with junior Daniel Omana to defeat Texas-San Antonio's Adam Becker and Hetori Chaves, 8-3. The duo then fell in the round of 16 to seventh-seeded Travis Helgren and Michael Venus of Texas, 8-5. The Mavericks had two other doubles teams compete but both fell in the opening round.

The Mavericks will be back in action Nov. 3, when they will split the team to compete in both the Lafayette Invitational and the ITA National Indoor Tournament. Both tournaments will run through Nov. 6.