Oct. 18, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Six members of the Penn State men's tennis team will travel to Princeton, N.J., this weekend for the Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Regional Championships. Action will take place on the campus of the Princeton University from Oct. 19-23.
"Coming off the ECAC Championships, this weekend will be another chance for our guys to compete, and see how we stack up with our region," said second-year head coach Todd Doebler. "So far this fall, I feel our guys have worked really hard and improved. This will be another opportunity for us to get better."
Senior Michael James (Clifton, Va.), who is ranked 35th in the ITA national rankings, garnered the No. 1 seed in the singles draw. James heads to Princeton with an 8-3 mark thus far during the fall season. In his last outing, James reached the consolation quarterfinals at the All American Championships. The Nittany Lion senior will take on the winner of the match between Yale's Connor Dawson and Columbia's Justin Chow on Saturday.
Garnering the No. 3 seed was junior Adam Slagter (Austin, Texas). Slagter, who holds a 3-2 mark this fall, will be looking to extend his three-match winning streak when he opens play on Saturday. The junior southpaw will take on the winner of the match pitting Brown's Jonathan Pearlman and Manhattan's Mihai Nichifor.
Fellow junior, Brendan Lynch (North Potomac, Md.) also earned a seed in the 128-player main singles draw. Lynch, who is the tournament's No. 7 seed, is 6-1 so far during the fall. He will faceoff with either UMBC's Henry Meyer or Cornell's Josh Goldstein on Saturday. Last season, Lynch advanced to the semifinals of the ITA Northeast Regionals before falling to Columbia's Jared Drucker (6-4, 6-4).
Freshman Eddie Bourchier (Hobart, Australia) is the fourth Lion player to hold a seed in the draw. Bourchier, who is an impressive 6-1 in his rookie fall, enters the tournament as the No. 16 seed. Bourchier will meet Villanova's Dave Shaheen or Stony Brook's Ivan Rummel in his first bout on Saturday.
Senior James Dwyer (Peachtree City, Ga.) and sophomore Ryan Gormley (Las Vegas, Nev.) will begin play on Friday at Princeton. Dwyer, who is 2-3 this season, will meet Cornell's Rory Heggie on Friday at 7 p.m. Gormley, who heads to Princeton with a 5-1 mark this fall, will take on Connecticut's Joe Goldstein at 2:30 p.m. on Friday.
In doubles action, Slagter and James garnered the No. 2 seed in the 64-team draw. The Lion duo began the fall season ranked 36th nationally by the ITA. James and Slagter, who possess a 5-4 record this year, last competed at the All American Championships in Tulsa. They reached the finals in last season's ITA Northeast Regional Championships before losing to Brown's Basudev Ratnam and Eric Thomas by a score of 8-5. James and Slagter will play either a team from Colgate (Tyler Deck and Martin MacIntyre) or a Drexel team (Omar Laalej and Joe Koebele) in their first match on Saturday.
The No. 3-seeded team of Dwyer and Bourchier take a 5-1 record to Princeton. Dwyer and Bourchier will open play on Saturday against the Holy Cross team of Angelo Sica Jr. and Matt Wierzel or the Rhode Island duo of Jared Dorfman and Jeff Cote.
The third Penn State doubles team in the main draw is made up of Lynch and Gormley. They will begin play on Friday against the Monmouth duo of Tom Corrie and Ian Terpolowski. In the fall, Gormley and Lynch are 3-1.
Action will take place all weekend long at Princeton. In singles play, the Round of 64 will take place on Saturday. The Rounds of 32 and 16 are set for Sunday, with the quarterfinals slated for Monday. The semifinals and the tournament finals will take place on Tuesday. In doubles play, the Round of 32 is set for Saturday, with the Round of 16 slated on Sunday. The quarterfinals and semifinals will take place on Monday, with the tournament finals set for Tuesday.
For more information on the ITA Northeast Regional Championships, log on to www.itatennis.com.