ROME, Ga. – Members of the Valdosta State men's tennis team opened the ITA Cup in Rome, Ga., with two wins in singles and a thrilling win in doubles as all three advanced to the quarterfinal round on Friday.  
 
On the singles side, senior and top-seeded Takeshi Taco made quick work of Seth Newman of Saint Thomas Aquinas, 6-0, 6-2 as he will face Jorge Perez of Charleston (W.Va.) on Friday at 10:15 a.m., in the quarterfinal round.  Perez defeated Bruno Sanchez of Midwestern State (Texas) 6-3, 6-0.  Taco won the ITA South Regional last weekend in Lakeland, Fla. 
 
Fellow senior, Boruch Skierkier, who is seeded third, dispatched UT Tyler's Carel Wessel 6-3, 6-1, as he now will face Aniss Rafiq of Flagler on Friday at 9 a.m.  Rafiq needed three sets to defeat Vaclav Schneider of Washburn, 7-5, 2-6, 6-1.  
 
In doubles, Taco and senior Xaveam Van Wijk battled top-seeded duo of Phil Exner and Ramon Strassmann of Ouachita Baptist (Ark.).  The OBU duo won the first set 6-4, before VSU rallied to level the match with a 6-3 win the second set.  From there, things got really dramatic as OBU raced out to a 7-1 lead in the ten-point tiebreaker, before Taco/van Wijk rallied to pull within 6-7.  
 
Exner/Strassmann won the next two points for match point, but the Blazer tandem dug deep and staved off elimination saving three-straight match points for a 9-9 score.  VSU would then save two more match points at 10-11 and 11-12, before winning the final three points in thrilling fashion for the 14-12 final set victory. 
 
Taco/van Wijk will face Columbus State's duo of Daniel Hammond and Benedek Szombathelyi on Friday at 3 p.m., as they also needed three sets to dispatch of Washburn tandem of Schneider and Tommaso Cecchetti, 3-6, 6-2, 10-7.  
 
Check back with vstateblazers.com for recaps of tomorrow's quarterfinal matches.