Sept. 23, 2009

Contact B-CU student intern Melanie Cheatham (386) 481-2278 -

Day Two of HBCU Nationals the Men’ s and Women’s team has four players to the quarter finals and sends one player to the semi-finals.

The Wildcats are working hard to stay in the competition.  In the second round of the tournament, freshman Kip Jackson, fell 6-0, 6-2 to Hassan Addas of Xavier University in the “B” flight.

Senior Yannick Jackson played a tough match to Jungho Oh of Hampton University. He was defeated 6-1, 7-6 (5) in a tie-breaker in the second round of the “B” flight.

Wildcat, Emo Vassilev was also defeated in the second round of the “A” flight by Hampton’s Sung-Kwon Baek with 6-3, 7-5 match score.

Lady Wildcat, Stacey Lopez brought a victory in the second round of the “B” flight. Defeating Kayla Cross of North Carolina A&T with a score of 6-0, 6-2. This victory landed her a spot in the quarterfinals. In next round Lopez faced Alexis Brown of Florida A&M losing the match with a 6-2 ,6-2 result.

In the quarterfinals, Cristian Cruz defeated Prairie- View A&M’s Christopher Jordan in a close and exciting match.  The match was split causing the players to play a tie- breaker. The match concluded 4-6, 6-2,10-5. Cruz advanced his way into the semi-finals where he met opponent Hassan Addas of Xavier University and lost 6-2, 6-2.

Brittany Davis, freshman Lady Wildcat, fell to Carlista Mahommed of Southern University 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the “B” flight. 

Vitor Belucci, sophomore Wildcat, fell short of a victory in the quarterfinals to Alcorn State University’s Pushpendra Rajpurohit with a 6-2, 6-3 result.

Continue to follow the Wildcats for the remainder of the tournament Saturday, and Sunday at www.BC-U athletics.com. The site also contains video highlights, and coach and player interviews of all BCU Wildcat sports.

Men's Results - First day of HBCU Nationals in Atlanta:

Thursday September 24, 2009 Men’s Results

Wildcat Junior Jeff Smallwood (Philadelphia, PA) began the morning winning his match 6-3, 6-4 to Alex Dominguez of Alcorn State University. In the second round Smallwood fell to Xavier University’s Sean Richardson 6-0, 6-3.

Wildcat freshman, Kip Jackson (Miami, FL) played a hard and tight match ending in a victory. Jackson defeated Yanick Shearon- Hawkins of Alcorn State with a score of  6-4, 3-6, 10-8 making his way into the second round.

Things continued to work out the Wildcat’s favor when Co-Captain, Cristian Cruz (Caguas, Puerto Rico) defeated his University of Arkansas Pine-Bluff opponent Andres Riobueno 6-2,    6-1. Cruz also gained another win to North Carolina Central’s Jose Fabara 7-6, 6-2, 10-7. He will now advance to the quarterfinals.

Following Cruz’s victory, sophomore Emil Vassilev (Sofia, Bulgaria) defeated Jack Waissen of North Carolina Central University in the “A” flight with a match score of 6-1, 6-4.

Sophomore, Vitor Belucci (Pindaymonhangaba, Brazil) was triumphant over Lucien Fluty of Prairie View A&M in the first round of the “C” flight. He will now go on to meet Florida A&M’s Fabrice Myrtil in the second round.

Sophomore, Greg Streat (Brooklyn, New York) was defeated by Florida A&M’s David Jackson with a score of 6-3, 6-0 in the “A” flight.

Junior, Kris Martin (Kingston, Jamaica) played Prairie-View A&M’s Kristin Powell and defeated him  6- 5,6-2, to advance into the second round of the “C” flight.

Senior, Yannick Jackson (Miami, FL) defeated Mikhail Vaval of Xavier University in an exciting  match. Winning the match 6-2, 7-6, (2), he has now secured himself a place in the second round of the tournament in the “B” flight.

Continue to follow the Wildcats for the remainder of the tournament Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at www.BC-U athletics.com. The site also contains video highlights, and coach and player interviews of all BCU Wildcat sports.

2009-2010 B-CU Men's Tennis Outlook - written by SID student intern Melanie Cheatham

The Bethune-Cookman Men's tennis team will open the fall season Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009 in the weekend-long HBCU National Championships at Sugar Creek Tennis Center in Atlanta, Georgia. This tournament will be played in three flights.

The Men's team finished the 2009 season ranked No. 3 in the MEAC, compiling a 7-14 overall record (5-2 MEAC). Head coach Trey Bogue is in his ninth season at Bethune-Cookman. Last season, Coach Bogue was named MEAC Coach of the Year for the Women's team and MEAC Co-Coach of the Year for the Men's program. Graduate assistant coach Thabani Sithole returns entering his second year working with both programs.

This weekend the Wildcats will compete for the title of HBCU Champions. Several teams are expected to have stand out players, Florida A& M, Hampton University, Alcorn State, Xavier University and Alcorn State University who won the SWAC last year.  The Wildcats have previously had success at this tournament. In 2006, the Lady Wildcats won the championship title and placed fourth last season. The Men's team placed third in 2006.  

The Wildcats head into 2009-10 season with last year's team largely intact, including last season's number one player sophomore, Emil Vassilev (Sofia, Bulgaria). Vassilev had an overall singles record of 3-16 playing the top players.

"Emil is playing some of the best tennis since he's been here. He's nursing a little bit of an ankle injury, but he's been working with the trainers, so we are hoping he is 100 percent when the first ball drops on Thursday," notes Coach Bogue.

In the preseason, seniors Yannick Jackson (Miami, Florida) and Cristian Cruz (Caguas, Puerto Rico) were both named team co-captains.  Last season, both players showed heart and a lot of enthusiasm in their matches.  Jackson played number two singles and concluded the 2008-2009 season with an overall record of 3-17. "Cristian is always very competitive and always gives 110 percent," comments Bogue. Cruz played number 4 singles in the 2008-2009 season, with a  7-13 overall record.

 "Yannick is also very competitive and is the 2^nd seed in the "B" flight. We are hoping he can live up to that and go out there and try to win the whole thing," comments Bogue.

In addition, sophomore Greg Streat (Brooklyn, New York) and junior Kristopher Martin (Kingston, Jamaica)who played the majority of last year's matches at No. 5 and No. 6 singles, will be back in Wildcat colors again this season.  Streat closed the season with a MEAC record of 5-1 and 7-8 overall.  With a 5-2 MEAC record, Martin ended the season with an  overall 8-11 singles mark.  In the HBCU tournament both Wildcat teams are anticipated to compete for national honors.

"Greg is a very smart and a very feisty player. We are expecting him to go out there and make some noise and would not be surprised if he caused some waves in the "A" flight as well. Kristopher Martin has recently recovered from sickness. This year he will be seeded in the "C" flight. He made the finals last year, and really had a chance to win it, but got lost in the second set when he could have closed him down. This year, we are expecting him to be in the finals and maybe win," Coach Bogue said .

 Also back from the 2008-09 season are last year's doubles team, Jeff Smallwood (Philadelphia, PA) and Vitor Belucci (Pindaymonhangaba, Brazil).  "Vitor has been playing some good tennis. We are expecting him to make some noise in the "C" draw," adds Bogue. The duo finished with an overall record of 2-0 and 2-0 in the MEAC.  This tournament Smallwood will be playing doubles with Marc Misanovic.

"Jeff is a big contributor with our doubles. He has a big serve and hits a big ball. This tournament Jeff is going to be playing the "A" flight with Marc. We are expecting big things from this doubles combo," remarked Coach Bogue. 

The Wildcats have added newcomers freshman Kip Jackson of Miami, Florida and younger brother to senior Yannick Jackson. "Kip has really played some good tennis this fall, we would like him to come out and surprise a few people. I definitely expect him to come out and win some rounds in the tournament as well as winning matches this season," adds Bogue.

 In addition, sophomore Marc Misanovic (Ljubljana, Slovenia), recent University of North Florida transfer is also expected to bring in some big wins for the Wildcats. "This weekend Marc will be seeded 3^rd in the "A" flight of singles. We hope he can be a semi-finalist in this flight, but I would not count him out of winning that draw," states Bogue.

The Lady Wildcats are also playing this weekend in the HBCU Nationals Tournament, and have the same high expectations as the men's program (see women's tennis links for their 2009-2010 outlook). The men's tennis team will be playing again on October 2-4, at Florida Southern University.

For more information on the weekend's event log on to www.BC-Uatheletics.com.  The site also contains video highlights, and coach and player interviews of all BCU Wildcat sports.