Feb. 1, 2001

Dallas, TX--It was a bittersweet day for the Illini doubles tandem of Amer Delic and Graydon Oliver. The pair lost in the quarterfinals tonight after a tough win earlier in the afternoon in the first day of the Rolex National Indoor Tournament.

Freshman Delic lost 6-3, 7-6(9) in the first round of singles action this morning to 5-8 seed Romain Ambert of Mississippi State. All was not lost for Delic, though, as he and senior Oliver had qualified for the doubles draw as a result of their Region IV championship title. In the first round, the duo toppled Stanford's KJ Hippensteel and Alex Kim 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Oliver and Delic then advanced to the quarterfinals, where they fell 7-5, 7-6(5) to VCU's Frank Moser and Florian Marquardt.

"I'm very disappointed," said Head Coach Craig Tiley. "They had a great opportunity to reach the semifinals of this tournament, but they did a poor job executing. Winning NCAA's is (Graydon and Amer's) goal. They have a ways to go yet to get to that point."

"In our first match we came out and played exactly how we should," said Oliver. "We were a different team (against VCU). We didn't come out with the right attitude in the second match. But we know what we need to do now, and we'll respond to this loss and move on from here."

Although he played three matches today, Delic is not done yet. He faces Bo Hodge of Georgia at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow morning in the backdraw. Results can be followed on the website www.itatennis.com.