April 9, 2006

Monroeville, PA - The #7 Flyers jumped out in front of the Owls early, but #5 Temple stormed back to stun men's tennis by taking third place at the A-10 Conference Championships on Sunday afternoon. The 4-3 loss ended the season for the Flyers; the team finished with a 12-13 record.

Dayton appeared to be on track for yet another upset after taking the doubles point, but the Owls came back to win four singles matches.

In doubles, junior Tom Murphy teamed up with senior Jamison Downs to win 8-5 over Jon Sy and Eduardo Saavedra. Murphy and Downs went 3-1 in the tournament and 15-7 on the season, they finished the year as UD's top duo. Sophomore James O'Connell and junior Rex Cabrera were also winners for the Flyers in doubles play dominating Temple's Milan Juricka and Phil Gegenheimer 8-0. O'Connell and Cabrera capped a successful season going 3-1 in tournament play (11-8 for the year).

Temple came back after the Flyers nabbed the doubles point, however. O'Connell was a winner at first singles 6-2, 6-2 over Jordan Krevitz. O'Connell was a key contributor over the past four matches and finished the tourney with a 3-1 record in singles play (15-5 on the season). Sophomore Chris Jones had the other Flyer victory playing at the sixth spot. Jones defeated Eduardo Saavedra 6-4, 6-1.

Junior standout Tom Murphy did not participate in singles action on Sunday, but went 2-1 in tourney play. Murphy finished the season with a 15-6 record, all at first singles.

One year removed from a second-place finish, UD came back to the tournament a younger team this season. Although the team came away with a fourth place finish, UD graduates just one senior from this year's program.