Minnesota’s Raoul Schwark played his first singles match in two weeks Saturday and showed little signs of rust as the senior posted a pair of wins to reach the Round of 16 of the ITA Midwest Regional Championships at the Baseline Tennis Center.

Schwark, the tournament’s No. 6 seed, quickly dispatched Louisville’s Robert Rotaru 6-2, 6-1, then gutted out a 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 win over Ohio State’s Matt Allare in the second round to improve to 8-2 on the season.

Freshman Sebastian Gallego nearly made it two Gophers in the Round of 16, defeating Western Michigan’s Alex Birchmeier 6-1, 6-3 in the opening round, before falling to Wisconsin’s Moritz Baumann 6-4, 6-3.

Fellow freshman Tobias Wernet battled through three sets but dropped his first-round match to Bryan Konlecko of Ohio State. Konlecko took the first set 7-5, before Wernet battled back to take the second by the same score. Konlecko ultimately captured set three and the match 6-3.

Schwark’s quarterfinal match vs. Bart Van Maonsjouis of Iowa is scheduled to get underway on Sunday at 8 a.m. at the Baseline Tennis Center.

NCAA Men’s Tennis
ITA Midwest Region IV Men's Tournament
Oct. 18-22, 2007
University of Minnesota Baseline Tennis Center
Minneapolis, Minn.

Main Draw Singles Results (Minnesota only)
Round of 64
Raoul Schwark (Minn.) def. Robert Rotaru (LVille), 6-2, 6-1
Sebastian Gallego (Minn.) def. Alex Birchmeier (WMU), 6-1, 6-3
Bryan Konlecko (OSU) def. Tobias Wernet, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3

Round of 32
Raoul Schwark (Minn.) def. Matt Allare (OSU) 5-7, 6-2, 6-3
Moritz Baumann (Wisc) def. Sebastian Gallego (Minn.) 6-4, 6-3