MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Middle Tennessee's Kirk Jackson won a pair of matches before falling in the semifinals of Flight One, leading the Blue Raider contingent over the weekend at the Tulane Invitational at the Goldring Tennis Stadium in New Orleans, La.
Jackson defeated Michael Chkrouno of UNO, 6-3, 6-3, and Tulane's Hannu Piiroinen, 0-6, 6-3, 6-1, to reach Saturday's semifinals. But the junior dropped a 6-2, 2-6, 3-6 decision to LSU's Sebastian Rutka.
In other action in Flight One, freshman Brandon Allan lost in the first round to David Canudas of Southern Miss, 3-6, 2-6, but rebounded with a pair of wins in the consolation bracket, defeating LSU's Paul White, 7-6 (3), 6-2, and Tulane's Goran Vasiljevic, 6-1, 6-4.
In the top flight of singles, Michael Staniak lost to Tulane's 17th-ranked Michael Kogan, 3-6, 2-6, but came back to defeat Jorge Lievano, also of Tulane, 6-3, 6-2, on Friday. Staniak won his only match on Saturday, over Tulane's Mattias Westerberg, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6.
In Flight Two, Greg Pollack lost his first match to Reid Bourgeois of Southern Miss, 2-6, 2-6, and Middle Tennessee's Rishan Kuruppu dropped a 1-6, 0-6 decision to Chris Walker of Southern Miss. Pollack defeated UNO's Saif Ali, 3-6, 7-6, 6-3, in the consolation bracket, and Kuruppu won 6-1, 6-3 over Louisiana-Lafayette's Blake Crauder.
In doubles action, Pollack and Kuruppu won 8-3 over Canudas and Nicolas Cataret of USM, and also defeated Paul White and Peter Richman of LSU, 9-7. Staniak and Allen dropped an 8-5 decision to Tulane's Kogan and Victor Romero.
The Blue Raiders finish play at Tulane on Sunday and will play in next weekend's ITA Region III Championships in Lexington, Ky., a qualifier for the National Indoor Championships.
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