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Complete Forecast for  Jul 24 2008

PLANO — Top-ranked Laredo clinched the national title a day early at the NJCAA Men’s Tennis Championship, leaving Tyler Junior College in its wake.

The Apaches lost semifinal singles matches to Laredo at flights 3, 4 and 5 on Thursday at Collin College. Roman Petrunin and J.J. Haley fell in three-setters while Zack Goldsmith dropped the first set in a tiebreaker.

“We had a tremendous opportunity and we did not take advantage of it,” said TJC head coach John Peterson. “Petrunin was serving at 4-2 in the third; Goldsmith was up 6-3 in the first-set tiebreaker. Haley split. We needed to win those matches and we didn’t do it.

“It’s not that we choked, we just didn’t play good enough to win them.”

On the bright side, TJC advanced all three doubles teams into Friday’s finals, meaning all six players for the Apaches will be declared either first- or second-team Juco All-Americans.

“Our wins were good and we played well,” Peterson said. “But the story of the tournament is like the girls. We didn’t have a win where you go, ‘Oh wow!’ That’s what you have to do if you’re going to win championships. It’s one of the strongest teams we’ve had in quite a few years.

“With that amount of freshmen (Clay Cypert is the only sophomore); you’ve got to hope that next year they learn from this. We were probably the youngest team in the tournament.”

The Apaches will get another shot at Laredo at Flight 2 singles and flights 1 and 2 doubles.

Fourth-seeded Thibaud Aime, a freshman from France, stormed back to beat No. 2 seed Marco Linconir of Abraham Baldwin (Ga.), 4-6, 6-1, 6-0, in the semifinals.

Aime’s win avenged a loss to the ABAC standout in their only previous meeting.

“Thibaud exposed a weakness on the backhand side,” Peterson said. “Thibaud’s a baseline player but he came to the net more and pounded that guy’s backhand.”

TJC Results

Singles

Flight 2

Quarterfinals — Thibaud Aime (4), TJC, def. Jaime Esteban (6), Vincennes (Ind.), 6-1, 6-7 (10-5).

Semifinals —

Aime def. Marco Linconir (2), Abraham Baldwin (Ga.), 4-6, 6-1, 6-0.

Flight 3

Quarterfinals —

Roman Petrunin (1), TJC, def. Justin Flynn (5), Abraham Baldwin, 4-6, 6-0 (8-0).

Semifinals — Jose Carlos Tolentino (3), Laredo, def. Petrunin, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

Flight 4

Quarterfinals —

Zack Goldsmith (2), TJC, def. Roman Flense (6), New Mexico Military, 6-2, 6-1.

Semifinals — Maxime Moreau (3), Laredo, def. Goldsmith, 7-6, 6-2.

Flight 5

Quarterfinals —

J.J. Haley (1), TJC, def. Victor Pinones, Barton County (Kan.), 6-4, 6-0.

Semifinals — Diego Troiano (3), Laredo, def. Haley, 7-6, 2-6, 6-2.

Flight 6

Quarterfinals —

Clay Cypert (1), TJC, def. Charles Hodge (5), Vincennes, 6-4, 6-1.

Semifinals — Cypert def. Petr Grigorev, Barton County, 6-2, 6-1.

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Doubles

Flight 1

Second Round —

McLuskey-Petrunin (2) won 8-4.

Quarterfinals — TJC def. Johnson County (Kan.), 6-3, 6-3.

Semifinals —

TJC def. Cowley (Kan.), 6-4, 6-4.

Flight 2

Second Round — Goldsmith-Haley (3) won 8-5.

Quarterfinals —

TJC def. Johnson County, 6-3, 6-3.

Semifinals —

TJC def. Vincennes, 6-3, 6-4.

Flight 3

Second Round — Aime-Cypert (3) won 8-3.

Quarterfinals —

TJC def. Vincennes, 6-1, 6-4.

Semifinals —

TJC def. Arkansas-Fort Smith, 6-1, 2-6, 6-1.