Gustavus Adolphus College

 

UC-Santa Cruz Captures Second ITA Division III
Men's Indoor Crown; Emory Takes Third

ST. PETER, MINN. - Fourth-seeded University of California, Santa Cruz defeated third-seed Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 9-0 to claim the 2007 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division III Indoor Championship. Emory University (Georgia) defeated host Gustavus Adolphus College 6-3 to finish in third place. The tournament was held at the Swanson Tennis Center on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.

The championship match started with UC-Santa Cruz taking all three doubles matches. Matt Seeberger and Ilya Gendelman defeated William Ellison and David Oehm 8-5 at the No. 1 position, Max Ortiz and Bryan Pybas defeated Guillaume Schils and Lawrence Wang 8-3 at the No. 2 position, and Jared Kamel and Mark Vartabedian defeated Eric Chow and Evan Feldhausen 8-6 at the No. 3 position.

The Banana Slugs closed out the match by sweeping all six singles matches. Two-time NCAA singles champion Matt Seeberger defeated Lawrence Wang 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1 singles to give UC-Santa Cruz a 4-0 lead and Max Ortiz topped Michael Lim 7-5, 7-6 (2) at No. 4 singles to secure the dual victory and the championship. Even with the result of the dual no longer in doubt, Claremont fought on, pushing each of the four remaining singles matches to a third set. Unfortunately, the Stags were unable to emerge with a win. Jared Kamel defeated William Ellison 5-7, 6-3, 1-0 (4) at the No. 2 position, Jeffrey Fong defeated Eric Chow 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (8) at No. 3 singles, Bryan Pybas defeated Eric MacColl 4-6, 6-0, 1-0 (6) at the No. 5 position, and Colin Mark-Griffin defeated David Oehm 7-5, 6-7 (4), 1-0 (6) at No. 6 singles.

UC-Santa Cruz, one of only three schools to win the ITA Division III Men's National Team Indoor Championships, now has two titles to match Emory(2004, 2005). Gustavus Adolphus has three titles (2002, 2003, 2006).

Emory completed a successful weekend with a 6-3 win over host Gustavus Adolphus in the third place match. Emory dropped all three doubles matches but rebounded to sweep all six singles matches. Gustavus took a 3-0 lead after doubles as Jesse Brauer and Andy Bryan defeated Yoji Masuoka and Michael Goodwin 8-5 at No. 1 doubles, Mike Burdakin and Charlie Paukert defeated Hardy Ehlers and Michael Kaufman 8-5 at No. 2 doubles and Ben Tomasek and Nick Hansen defeated Oliver Lopp and Mark Boren 9-8 (5) at No. 3 doubles.

The Eagles closed the gap to 3-2 with victories by Goodwin over Bryan (6-2, 6-4) at No. 1 singles, Boren over John Kauss (6-1, 6-3) at No. 3 singles and then drew even as Masuoka defeated Brauer 6-4, 6-2 at the No. 2 position. Emory extended its lead and secured the victory with a 6-3, 6-2 win by Lopp over Paukert at No. 5 singles and a 6-0, 6-3 win by Kaufman over Chad Olson at No. 6 singles. The Gusties best chance to pick up a point in singles play came at the No. 4 position, the final match to be completed. Mike Burdakin took the first set from Hardy Ehlers 6-3, but dropped the second set 7-5 and the third 7-6 (8) to end the dual.

Action Heats Up as Mother Nature Bears Down;
Top Seeds Fall to Set Up All-California Final

ST. PETER, MINN. - As Mother Nature made everyone recognize the benefits of an indoor tennis facility during a Minnesota winter, action heated up inside the Swanson Tennis Center in St. Peter, Minn., with a number of close matches during play Saturday at the ITA National Division III Men's Indoor Championships. Semifinal play saw the tournament's top seeds upset in a pair of close matches. No. 7 UC-Santa Cruz took two of three doubles matches and then added a quartet of singles victories to move to Sunday's final with a 6-3 win over top-rated and defending NCAA Champion Emory.

No. 3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps overcame a 2-1 deficit following doubles play to edge host and defending ITA Indoor champion Gustavus Adolphus 5-4. Following a straight-set win by CMS' Eric Chow over Gustavus' John Kauss at the No. 3 position to knot the score at 2-2, matches at No. 1 and No. 2 singles each went to third-set tie-breakers. The Stags took the win at the top singles position, and the Gusties prevailed at No. 2. The teams traded straight-set wins at No. 4 and No. 5 singles, placing all of the focus on Claremont's David Oehm and Gustavus' Ben Tomasek at No. 6 singles. With the dual and a spot in the championship final on the line, Oehm took the first set 7-5 and led 4-1 in the second before Tomasek battled back to tie the set at 6-6 and send it to a tie-breaker. In the tie-breaker, Tomasek led 4-2, but Oehm won five of the last six points to end the match.

The semifinals result in an All-California championship final between No. 3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and No. 7 UC-Santa Cruz, while Emory will face Gustavus in the third-place match. Both will take place Sunday at 9 a.m. UC-Santa Cruz will be looking for its second ITA Division III Indoor title, after capturing the inaugural title in 2001. Gustavus (3) and Emory (2) have combined for all of the titles in the intervening five years.

Saturday morning's consolation semifinals saw No. 12 Trinity (Texas) defeat No. 11 Mary Washington 6-3 and No. 6 DePauw defeat No. 23 Swarthmore 9-0. In an exciting fifth-place match that extended into the early hourse of Sunday morning, Trinity (Texas) edged DePauw 5-4. Trinity (Texas) took a 2-1 lead following doubles play, but saw DePauw respond with victories by Evan Webeler (6-4, 3-6, 6-4 over Oliver Gaines) at No. 1 and Kortney Keith (6-2, 7-6[4] over D.J. Petros) at No.2 singles to take a 3-2 lead. Trinity's James Furr picked up a three-set win at No. 3 to knot the match at 3-3, but DePauw retook the lead with a 6-4, 6-1 win by Scott Sauer at No. 5 singles. Trinity closed out the match, though, with a 6-4, 7-5 win by Crisanto Ramirez at No. 6 singles and a three-set win by David Tran at the No. 4 position.

In the seventh-place match, Mary Washington dropped two of three doubles matches to Swarthmore but rebounded to sweep the singles matches to take seventh place by a score of 7-2.

Seeds Hold True on Opening Day of ITA Division III Indoor Championships

ST. PETER, MINN. - The seeding process held true Friday as the top four seeds all advanced to semifinal play at the seventh annual Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Division III Men's Indoor Championships at the Swanson Tennis Center in St. Peter, Minnesota. Top-rated and defending NCAA Champion Emory University moved past No. 11 University of Mary Washington 9-0 and No. 7 University of California, Santa Cruz topped Trinity (Texas) University 7-2 to advance in the morning quarterfinals, while No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges downed No. 6 DePauw University 7-2 and No. 3 Gustavus Adolphus shut out No. 23 Swarthmore College 9-0 during the evening session.

One semifinal will feature top-seed Emory University against fourth-seed UC-Santa Cruz at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday at the Swanson Tennis Center, while host Gustavus Adolphus College, the second-seed, will face third-seed Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges at the same time. The championship and third place matches will take place at 9:00 am on Sunday.

The consolation round will begin at 8:30 am on Saturday with DePauw University playing Swarthmore College and Trinity University meeting up with the University of Mary Washington. The consolation final will take place at 7:30pm on Saturday night.

Gustavus Set to Host Seventh Annual ITA Division III Indoor Championships

ST. PETER, MINN. - Gustavus Adolphus College is set to host the seventh annual Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Division III Indoor Championship at the Swanson Tennis Center in St. Peter, Minnesota. Eight of the top 25 teams in Division III tennis will play off to determine the 2007 ITA National Indoor Champion. Three-time and defending champion Gustavus will defend its title. The Golden Gusties will be the #2 seed entering the tournament. 2004 and 2005 ITA Indoor champion Emory University will be the #1 seed.

Joining Emory (#1 in the current ITA Div. III poll) and Gustavus (#4), will be the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges of Claremont, California (#2), DePauw University of Greencastle, Indiana (#6), University of California, Santa Cruz (#7), University of Mary Washington of Fredericksburg, Virginia (#11), Trinity University of San Antonio, Texas (#12), and Swarthmore College of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania (#23). Swarthmore is appearing in the ITA Indoor Championships for the first time.

The tournament will begin on Friday morning with #1 Emory facing #8 Mary Washington and #4 UC-Santa Cruze playing #5 Trinity (Texas) at 11:30 am. In the afternoon, #2 Gustavus will battle #7 Swarthmore and #3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps will play #6 DePauw. The afternoon matches are slated to begin at 5:00 pm. Saturday's schedule has the losers of Friday's matches playing in consolation matches beginning at 8:30 am, while the winners will play in semifinal matches beginning at 2:00 pm. The third place and championship matches will begin at 9:00 am on Sunday morning.

Many of the top players in Division III will be taking part in the tournament including five of the top 10 ranked singles players. Some of the top ranked players include Michael Starr of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Michael Goodwin of Emory, John James of Mary Washington, Evan Webeler of DePauw, and Jesse Brauer of Gustavus.

In doubles play, five of the top 10 tandems in the country and part of another will be present including William Ellison and David Oehm of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Scott Swanson and Evan Webeler of DePauw, Michael Goodwin and Michael Kaufman of Emory, Brian Pybas and Marc Vartabedian of UC-Santa Cruz, and Guillaume Shils and Lawrence Wang of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

This will be the fifth consecutive year that the ITA Division III Indoor Championships have been held at the Swanson Tennis Center on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota.