Oct. 3, 2012

TULSA, Okla. (SMU) - Arturs Kazijevs and Mischa Nowicki fell to Francisco Dias and Alex van Gils of George Washington University, 8-6, in the third round of doubles qualifiers at the ITA Men's All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla., on Wednesday.

"We played very well," Head Coach Carl Neufeld said. "It was the best they've played. It came down to a couple chances to break but they came up with some good shots."

Dias, a sophomore, was ranked No. 954 in the world by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the 10th rated newcomer in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) before becoming a member of the Colonials. Van Gils, a senior, was named to the Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team last year and posted an overall doubles record of 22-7.

"The All-American is one tournament where everyone in the country sends their top players," Neufeld said. "It was a great experience for us as a group."

The SMU sophomore-junior duo defeated Florida State's Joao Gauer and Cristian Gonazalez-Mendez on Tuesday. Kazijev and Nowicki had a first round bye for Tuesday morning, as did Florida State and George Washington. Kazijevs was selected to the All-Conference USA Second Team for doubles last season with former teammate Tobias Flood. Kazijevs was also named Conference USA Co-Freshman of the Year last season. Nowicki was 5-9 last year in doubles (primarily playing No.1 or No. 3) and 6-4 as a freshman in 2010-11.

SMU's next tournament is the Collin County Invitational in Plano, Texas, on Oct. 12-13.