Oct. 15, 2009
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Four Notre Dame men’s tennis players are set to take part in the main draw of the 2009 ITA Midwest Regional Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Friday, Oct. 16. The four players representing the Irish will be Casey Watt (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland), Stephen Havens (Cincinnati, Ohio/Hill Christian School), Daniel Stahl (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) and Tyler Davis (Nashville, TN/Father Ryan). All four players will take part in both the singles and doubles draws.
Watt, coming off a dominating performance at last weekend’s Harvard Invitational where he was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Singles Player, earned the ninth seed in the 64-player ITA Midwest Regional singles field. He will face Filip Miljevic of Illinois State in first round action. Havens and Stahl are seeded 15th and 16th, respectively, in the singles draw. Havens will play Northwestern’s Mark Schanerman, while Stahl will face Marquette’s Jacob Straus. Davis will meet Michigan’s seventh-seeded Evan King in the first round.
In the doubles draw, the Irish team of Davis and Watt are seeded sixth, while Havens pairs with Stahl as the 10th-seeded team at the event. By virtue of their seeding, both teams receive a bye into the second round. In the second round, Davis and Watt will face opposition from either UIC or Illinois, while Havens and Stahl will face opposition from UDM or IPFW.
The Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional Championships are being held at Michigan’s Varsity Tennis Center. Live Stats and video of selected indoor matches will be made available through Michigan’s ITA Midwest Regional homepage: http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-tennis/spec-rel/101409aab.html. Daily recaps of Notre Dame’s performance at the event will be posted on und.com.
Last season, Havens, Brett Helgeson (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley West) and Stahl all took part in main draw singles play at the ITA Midwest Regionals. Seeded fourth, Helgeson made it to the quarterfinals. Havens teamed with Helgeson to take part in the doubles draw as well, advancing to the round of 16.
The Irish are no strangers to success at the ITA Midwest regionals under head coach Bob Bayliss. Since 1990, Notre Dame has had four singles champions, most recently Stephen Bass in 2005. Andy Zurcher (1993), Will Forsyth (1992) and David DiLucia (1990) also won the event for the Irish. In addition, Notre Dame has had five runners-up at the event and four No. 1 seeds. In doubles action, four Notre Dame duos have won the Regionals, including the tandem of Sheeva Parbhu and Ryan Keckley in 2006.
— ND —