The spring 2005 season marked great accomplishments for the University of Dayton men's tennis team and set high expectations for the upcoming season.

After being named the second seed and qualifying for the final round of the Atlantic 10 Conference championships, the Flyers earned the runner-up title for the first time in program history.

Being defeated only by the defending champions and No. 1 seed, University of Richmond, by just one point, the Flyers earned wins against Duquesne and Xavier in the three-round tournament.

The end of the season saw the culmination of hard work for the men, which included many early mornings of conditioning and late night practices at NCR or the Dayton Center Tennis Courts. The season also marked the recognition of Rob Altenau and current junior Tom Murphy on the All-Conference team as well as head coach Steve Brunbaugh as Atlantic 10 Coach of the year.

Now with the start of the 2005-2006 season, the Flyers are looking to return to A-10 championship and perform better than ever.

With high expectations the Flyers are looking to this fall to continue the hard work that earned them the runner up title last spring.

'We will settle for nothing short of finishing off better than last season,' Downs said. 'We hope to get more fans from the UD student body and we promise to give you all a good show.'

Although losing two key players, All-Conference selection Altenau and Jon Khoury, the Flyer's return seven from the 2004-2005 season including four starters and also add five freshmen to the roster.

'Rob and Jon are irreplaceable,' said senior Jamison Downs. 'They were extremely valuable to our team, but while we will miss both of them, we are very confident that our new freshmen recruits will help us get to where we were last season.'

Play started for the 2005 Flyers last Saturday at the Wittenberg Invitational.

Although the fall season is mostly used by the team as pre-season and preparation for the spring, the Flyers still performed well in the first matches of the year. No team score was kept, but five UD players and two doubles teams earned an undefeated record for the start of the season.

Murphy at No. 1 singles, sophomore James O'Connell at No. 2 singles, sophomore Chris Jones at No. 5 singles and junior Rex Cabrera at No. 7 singles all won their sets. In double competition the teams of Murphy and Downs in No. 1 doubles and O'Connell and Cabrera at No. 2 doubles defeated teams in all six of their matches.

The show will continue for the Flyers Sept. 30 at the Wright State Invitational in Fairborn.