Senior Stephen Bass.

Irish Men's Tennis Sends Three to National Indoors

Nov. 1, 2006

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s tennis team will send three members to compete in the 2006 Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Indoor Championships Thursday at the Racquet Club of Columbus in Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State is the host school for this year’s championships, which are the second of three played during the 2006-2007 collegiate tennis season.

In singles, junior Sheeva Parbhu (Omaha, NE/Millard North) earned a spot in the tournament by reaching the singles final of the ITA Midwest Regional Championship two weeks ago. Senior Stephen Bass (Bronxville, NY/Iona Prep School) was an at-large selection into the field.

Parbhu is not seeded and will face Harel Srugo of Old Dominion in the first round, while Bass, also unseeded, will play Greg Ouellette of Florida.

Parbhu and senior Ryan Keckley (South Bend, IN/St. Joseph’s) will represent the Irish in doubles after winning the ITA Midwest Regional Championships. The duo will open the tournament with fourth-seeded Markus Dickhardt and Christian Groh of San Diego State.

Ben Kohlloeffel of UCLA is the No. 1 seed in singles while Georgia’s John Isner and Luis Flores of Georgia hold the top doubles seed.

These championships feature a 32-player singles field and 16-team doubles field for men and women, including: champions from Wilson/ITA Regional Championships held across the country during October, the ITA National Small College champions, the winners of the Polo Ralph Lauren Men’s All-American Tennis Championships and Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships presented by Fila and at-large and wild card selections made earlier this week by the ITA National Tournament Committee. Overall, more than 10,000 players from nearly 600 schools participate annually in the ITA Regional and National Intercollegiate Championships.

The championships will take place at the Racquet Club of Columbus, one of the best indoor facilities in the region that feature 10 Novacrylic tennis courts in three separate bays with spacious viewing lounges. The club hosts several junior and adult tournaments throughout the year.

Next weekend’s semifinal and championship matches will be broadcast live by Ken Thomas at www.RadioTennis.com.

The ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships were inaugurated in 1978 for the men and 1984 for the women and recent champions and finalists include current and recent top 100 professionals Benjamin Becker (Baylor), James Blake (Harvard), Bob and Mike Bryan (Stanford), Laura Granville (Stanford), Marissa Irvin (Stanford), Kevin Kim (UCLA), 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.

Results for action this weekend will be posted at www.und.com.

Men’s Singles Defending Champion
Benjamin Kohlloeffel, UCLA

Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Quarterfinalists
Arnau Brugues, Tulsa
John Isner, Georgia
Somdev Devvarman, Virginia
Luis Flores, Georgia
Luke Shields, Boise State
Ryan Rowe, Illinois
Clement Reix, Clemson
Todd Paul, Wake Forest (conso champ)

ITA National Small College Champion
Mislav Hizak, Embry-Riddle

Wilson/ITA Regional Finalists
Arvid Puranen, Virginia Tech
Jared Drucker, Columbia
Harel Srugo, Old Dominion
Henrique Cancado, Old Dominion
Greg Oullette, Florida
Travis Helgeson, Georgia
Steven Moneke, Ohio State
Sheeva Parbhu, Notre Dame
Ricardo Soriano, Tulsa
Ivan Puchkarov, Oklahoma State
Bojan Zsumanski, Texas Tech
Alex Skyrpko, SMU
Zach Ganger, Utah
Clancy Shields, Boise State
Andre Begemann, Pepperdine
Jakub Cech, Fresno State

At-Large Selections
Lars Poerschke, Baylor
Ken Skupski, LSU
Arnaud Lecloerec, VCU
Stephen Bass, Notre Dame

ITA Wild Card
Erling Tveit, Mississippi

Ohio State Wild Card
Justin Kronauge, Ohio State

Men’s Doubles
Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Semifinalists John Isner/Luis Flores, Georgia
Brian Hung/Matko Maravic, Michigan
Markus Dickhardt/Christian Groh, San Diego State
James Cluskey/Ken Skupski, LSU

ITA National Small College Champions
Julien Carsuzaa/Dennis Riegraf, Lynn

Wilson/ITA Regional Champions
Basudev Ratnam/Eric Thomas, Brown
Alex Cojanu/Colin O’Brien, William & Mary
Marco Born/Andreas Siljestrom, Middle Tennessee
Diego Camacho/ Ross Cunningham, Tulsa
Sheeva Parbhu/Ryan Keckley, Notre Dame
Andrei Kumantsov/ Mikael Pavlov, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Max Jones/Kamil Pajkowski, New Mexico
Pierre Moullion/Daniel Sebecen, California

At-Large Selections
Bobby Cameron/Kaden Hensel, Tennessee
Andre Begemann/Omar Altman, Pepperdine

Ohio State Wild Card
TBA

— ND —