Arce Dominant at Penn State
9/27/04

St. Bonaventure senior Mario Arce (pictured) led the Bonnies at the Penn State Fall Classic this past weekend on the Penn State campus.  Schools participating in the event with the Bonnies were Rutgers, A-10 rival Temple and Penn State. 

Arce improved his fall record to an impressive 7-1 with 3 singles victories including a thrilling 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 triumph over Penn State's Mark Barry.  Arce took a commanding 4-2 lead in the third set and then started to severely cramp in his legs. Despite the cramps, Arce was able to score a victory over one of the regions top-ranked players.  Last year, Barry defeated Arce in straight sets at the ECAC Championships. The cramping  caused Arce to miss the remaining two doubles matches against Temple and Penn State.

Sophomore Andrew Hart continued his strong form, winning 2 out of 3 singles and doubles matches against Temple and Rutgers  respectively.  Also continuing strong form was the Bonnies top doubles duo of senior Nikhil Murali and Alejandro Nery.  Murali & Nery, the winners of the Princeton Invitational, won matches versus Temple and Rutgers before losing a heart-breaking match to Penn State in which they had 3 match points 9-8. Murali scored a 3-set victory against Rutgers and Nery scored a hard-fought victory over Temple in which he also suffered from mild-cramps in his legs.

Sophomore Dejan Stankovic scored a 3-set victory over Rutgers and partnered with Hart to win in doubles against Temple.  Senior Sajeel Qureshi won in straight-sets versus Temple and partnered with Hart to defeat Rutgers in doubles.Bonnies freshman Steven Steenland also saw his first collegiate singles and doubles action this weekend and competed well against three of the regions premier teams.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bonnies will travel to New York City for the prestigious ECAC Championships.  The event hosts the Northeast regions top 16 teams with the winner to advance to the NCAA National indoor championships in the winter.  This is the third straight year the Bonnies are invited to the tournament.  Last year the Bonnies defeated Colgate and Boston College en route to a 9th place finish.