(Posted April 28, 2007)

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Juniata College men\'s tennis team had a number of individuals earn victories on day one of the MASCAC Individual/Doubles Championships Saturday afternoon, including one doubles pair that reached the semifinals and will be in action again on Sunday. The doubles pairing of Jonathan Skoner (Central Catholic/Pittsburgh) and Jau Feixas (University of Barcelona/Barcelona, Spain) earned a bye into the second round as the number-three seed, and then reached the semifinals with an 8-3 win over a team from DeSales University in the third doubles flight. In other doubles action, the team of Jarrad Silver (Walt Whitman/Bethesda, Md.) and Aaron Rhodes (Huntingdon/Huntingdon) suffered an 8-6 loss to a team from Wilkes in the first round of the first doubles flight. In singles action, all five of Juniata\'s players picked up wins in the opening round, but none of the five were able to reach the semifinals. Rhodes came the closest to earning a berth in the semifinals as his quarterfinal match in the fifth singles bracket went to six sets. The sophomore earned a comfortable 6-0, 6-1 win in the opening round, and then won the first set of his quarterfinal before falling 3-6, 6-3, 10-6 to the number-three seed. Skoner picked up a 6-0, 6-2 win in the first round of the number-one singles flight, but then fell to the top seed in the flight by a score of 6-0, 6-3. Silver was also a first round victor in the second singles bracket as he notched a 6-3, 6-1 win in the opening round, only to fall by a 6-0, 7-6 score to the fourth seed in the bracket. Ryan Navarro (Bishop Guilfoyle/Altoona) also found himself matched up against the top seeded player in his third singles bracket. The sophomore won his first match 6-1, 6-2 before falling 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinal round. Finally in the sixth singles bracket Derek Dye (Beall/Frostburg, Md.) earned just his second singles win of the season by a 6-3, 6-2 score in the opening round, before falling to the second seeded player by a 6-1, 6-0 score in the quarterfinals. Skoner and Feixas will face the second-seeded team in the bracket which reached the semifinal with an 8-1 win in the quarters. Since the MASCAC began holding singles and doubles championships for each spot in the lineup, no Juniata team has reached the championship round. ###

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