May 23, 2007
ATHENS, Ga. – Notre Dame senior Stephen Bass (Bronxville, NY) was named the recipient of the 2007 ITA/John Van Nostrand Memorial Award during the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s national award ceremony Tuesday in conjunction with the NCAA Championships. The award is an annual stipend given to an outstanding senior men’s player who plans to pursue a professional tennis career upon graduation.
This season, Bass is currently ranked No. 8 nationally in singles and No. 28 in doubles. He has a 35-10 singles record, including a 22-4 record at No. 1 singles. The 2007 BIG EAST Performer of the Year and ITA Midwest Senior Player of the Year, Bass is also a three-time BIG EAST honoree. He led the Irish to a 27-4 record in 2007 as Notre Dame won the BIG EAST Championship and reached the NCAA Tournament Round of 16. Bass also captured the 2006 ITA/Rafael Osuna Sportsmanship Award.
Bass will return to action on Wednesday as the 2007 NCAA Singles Championship begins at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on the campus of the University of Georgia. He is the tournament’s No. 7 seed and will play Kaes Van’t Hof of USC in the first round of the 64-player draw. Teammate junior Sheeva Parbhu (Omaha, NE) will also open play in the singles tournament Wednesday, playing No. 2 seed Somdev Devvarman of Virginia in the first round.
Parbhu and senior Ryan Keckley (South Bend, IN) are not seeded for the 2007 NCAA Doubles Championship , which begins Thursday in Athens. They will play the Old Dominion duo of Henrique Cancado and Harel Srugo in the first round.
— ND —