Nov. 2, 2005
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ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Tennis ChampionshipsColumbus, Ohio • The Racquet Club of Columbus • The Ohio State UniversityNovember 3 - first roundNovember 4 - round of 16, quarterfinalsNovember 5 - semifinalsNovember 6 - championship
BASS, PARBHU OFF TO ITA NATIONAL INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS: Notre Dame junior Stephen Bass (Bronxville, N.Y./Iona Preparatory School) and sophomore Sheeva Parbhu (Omaha, Neb./Millard North H.S.) — who met in the final of last week’s Wilson/ITA Midwest Championships — will head to Columbus, Ohio, this week for the season’s second grand slam tournament, the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships. Both players, by virtue of reaching the final last week, will take part in the 32-player singles main draw, which runs Thursday through Sunday in the Racquet Club of Columbus. They will be the first Notre Dame participants in the singles bracket of that event since 2000, and both will be taking part in a grand slam for the first time.
ITA NATIONAL INTERCOLLEGIATE INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS FORMAT & HISTORY: The ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships feature a 32-player singles field and 16-team doubles field for men and women, including: qualifiers from ITA Regional Championships held across the country during October, the ITA National Small College champions, the winners of the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Tennis Championships and Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships and at-large and wild card selections made by the ITA National Tournament Committee. Overall, more than 10,000 players from nearly 600 schools participate annually in the Wilson/ITA Regional and National Intercollegiate Championships. This event was inaugurated in 1978 for the men and 1984 for the women and recent champions and finalists include current and recent top 100 professionals James Blake (Harvard), Laura Granville (Stanford), Marissa Irvin (Stanford), Jeff Morrison (Florida) and Lisa Raymond (Florida). Big Ten legends and Grand Slam finalists Todd Martin (Northwestern) and MaliVai Washington (Michigan) are also among the past champions. 2005 marks the 15th anniversary of Martin’s championship run. Big Ten players have reached the men’s singles final at this event each of the past four years (winning three titles). Last year, Illinois’ Ryler DeHeart (this year’s top seed) beat Jesse Witten of Kentucky 6-1, 6-4 in the singles final, and the Ohio State squad of Scott Green and Ross Wilson prevailed 8-5 against Stanford’s KC Corkery and Sam Warburg in doubles. The doubles draw will have one round each day, but the round of 16 and quarterfinals of the singles will both be played on Friday.
IRISH DRAWS: Junior Stephen Bass (Bronxville, N.Y./Iona Preparatory School) will take on 16th-ranked Rylan Rizza from Virginia in the opening round. It will be a rematch of the No. 2 singles contest in last spring’s dual match, in which Rizza prevailed 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3. Sophomore Sheeva Parbhu (Omaha, Neb./Millard North H.S.) will face 28th-ranked Shannon Buck, who signed a national letter of intent in 2001 to play for Notre Dame, but then elected to enroll at the United States Air Force Academy.
ND IN THE ITA NATIONAL INTERCOLLEGIATE INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS: Notre Dame will be represented in the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships for the 10th time in the last 15 years, but the first since 2001, when Casey Smith and Javier Taborga reached the semifinals in doubles. The last Irish player to participate in the singles draw was Ryan Sachire, who advanced to the quarterfinals in 2000. That stands as the best-ever finish for a Notre Dame competitor in singles, though four times Irish players have won their first-round matches to reach the final 16. In doubles, David DiLucia and Chuck Coleman were the runners-up in 1992. See box on next page for complete results of the Irish in the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships.
IRISH HEAD COACH: Bob Bayliss is in his 19th year at Notre Dame with a 327-157 (.677) record and his 37th year overall as a head coach, sporting a 609-251 (.709) mark. On Feb. 18, 2005, vs. Northwestern, he became just the fourth active NCAA Division I coach to reach 600 career victories. Bayliss has had just one losing season in his career and has seen his teams finish in the top 20 nine times in the past 16 years, advancing to the NCAA round of 16 on five occasions, highlighted by a quarterfinal appearance in 1993 and a national runner-up finish in ’92. He also is one of just three coaches in Division I to have led his current team to 14 NCAA tournaments over the last 15 seasons. Bayliss, named national coach of the year in 1980 and ’92, is a four-time ITA Midwest Region coach of the year and 12-time conference coach of the year (five times in the last eight years in the BIG EAST, including 2004 and `05). In his time at Notre Dame, Bayliss’ teams have won 12 conference titles, while his players have earned All-America honors 17 times, won eight national ITA awards, and earned 16 invitations to the NCAA Singles Championship and 11 to the NCAA doubles tournament.
ND BOASTS FOUR RANKED SINGLES PLAYERS: After going through most of 2004-05 with one or no players in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) national singles rankings, Notre Dame placed four in the preseason edition for 2005-06, released earlier this month. Junior Stephen Bass (Bronxville, N.Y./Iona Preparatory School) leads the way at a career-high 74th, while three Irish student-athletes earned their first-ever collegiate singles rankings: sophomore Sheeva Parbhu (Omaha, Neb./Millard North H.S.) at 77th, senior Eric Langenkamp (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale H.S.) at 89th, and freshman Brett Helgeson (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley West H.S.) at 108th. Notre Dame is one of just eight schools to have at least four players in the national singles rankings, joining Virginia (7 players ranked), Illinois (6), Florida (5), Duke (4), Miami (4), and Texas (4). It is the first time the Irish have had a quartet appearing in the singles rankings since the first set of spring rankings in the 2001-02 campaign, which featured five ND players. That listing had Javier Taborga at 23rd, Matthew Scott at 51st, Casey Smith at 94th, Aaron Talarico at 107th, and Andrew Laflin at 136th. Bass is the highest-ranked Irish player since Luis Haddock concluded his career at 74th at the end of the 2003-04 season. In addition, Barry King was among nine players listed as having “insufficient data” in order to be ranked, as he will not compete collegiately this fall.
TERRIFIC TRIO: The 2005-06 campaign marks the first time ever that Notre Dame has had three different players compete in singles action in grand slams in the fall semester. Senior Eric Langenkamp (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale H.S.) participated in the singles main draw of the season’s first grand slam, the Polo Ralph Lauren ITA All-American Championships, while junior Stephen Bass (Bronxville, N.Y./Iona Preparatory School) and sophomore Sheeva Parbhu (Omaha, Neb./Millard North H.S.) will play in this week’s ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships.
LANGENKAMP WINS ITA SUMMER NATIONALS: Senior Eric Langenkamp (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale H.S.) claimed the singles title in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Summer Championships, presented by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) last month at Indiana University. Among the highlights of his run were wins against Steven Peretz (who played Nos. 4-6 for Michigan last spring), Ryan Preston (Nos. 4-5 for Vanderbilt in ’05), top-seeded Paul Rose (Purdue’s No. 1 player who is ranked 54th in the preseason ITA listing), Will Gray (Nos. 3-6 for Tulsa in ’05), and Eric Hechtman (Nos. 2-3 for Miami in `05). The championship earned Langenkamp – who combined with sophomore Yuichi Uda (Wesley Chapel, Fla./Laurel Springs School [CA]) to make Notre Dame the only school with two players among the final 16 in the singles draw – wild-card entry into the main draw of the first grand slam of the 2005-06 collegiate season, the Polo Ralph Lauren ITA All-American Championships. It was the first time an Irish player ever won the tournament.
IRISH TO FACE SEVEN TOP-25 TEAMS: Seven teams that finished the 2004-05 campaign in the top 25 of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) national rankings – including five that reached the final 16 of the NCAA Championship – highlight the 2005-06 schedule for the University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team. In all, 18 of the 20 teams on Notre Dame’s schedule ended last year ranked among the top 75 in the nation, while 14 earned bids to the NCAAs. Among the top challenges on the Irish slate will be matches with USC (finished 21st, NCAA second round, Oct. 14, home, exhibition match), Virginia (5th, quarterfinals, Jan. 27, in Richmond, Va.), North Carolina (34th, first round, Feb. 4, away), Duke (9th, round of 16, Feb. 5, away), Illinois (6th, round of 16, Feb. 7, away), Ohio State (24th, second round, Feb. 24, home), Florida State (13th, quarterfinals, March 14, away), Texas (28th, second round, March 25, away), Texas A&M (18th, round of 16, March 26, away), and new BIG EAST rival Louisville (33rd, second round, April 13, home). Adding to the difficulty will be that ND will be at home for just two of those nine spring matches against squads that ended last season ranked among the top 35.
CHANGES TO THE ITA RANKINGS: The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) recently announced some changes to its national rankings for the 2005-06 season: (1) It will use one set of points for wins and also a tighter set of points, with less gaps. This set of points will be the same set that has been used for the season’s first computer rankings in the past; (2) There will be bonus points awarded for road wins; (3) The rankings that are run at the time of NCAA Championship selections will be run twice and the second run of the rankings will be the published ranking; (4) There will be expanded, unpublished rankings (and values for opponents): 76-125 for team, 126-175 for singles, and 61-90 for doubles; (5) The first computer rankings (for team) will take place 2 weeks earlier on March 8; (6) The singles and doubles rankings from Fall results will go back to being a computer ranking; it had been done by committee vote the past three years.
KEEPING UP WITH NOTRE DAME TENNIS: For the fastest results of Notre Dame tennis matches, call the Notre Dame sports hotline at (574) 631-3000 and choose #8. The hotline provides schedule and results information for varsity sports and serves as a supplement to the game recaps and weekly releases provided on the official athletic website at www.und.com. The hotline is the first medium updated with the results of each Notre Dame tennis match. In addition, media members and fans may be added to the sports information e-mail release list by contacting Bo Rottenborn at Rottenborn.2@nd.edu, who also can provide any information about the Irish tennis program.