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Final Men's Tennis Release.pdf

Tulsa Falls to Arkansas in NCAA First Round
The Tulsa men's tennis team rallied from a 2-0 deficit to a 3-3 tie with Arkansas, but the Razorbacks outlasted the Golden Hurricane to post a 4-3 victory in the first round of the 2002 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championships at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla. After a 37 minute delay due to a slight drizzle, the match came down to the No. 2 singles position between Tulsa senior Dane McGregor and Arkansas' Nathan Price. McGregor captured a 7-6 decision in the first set and held an early 1-0 lead in the second set before Price battle back and claimed the second set, 6-4. In the final set and for the right to advance into the second round, Price outdueled a cramping McGregor, 6-2, for the win. Arkansas picked up the doubles point with wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions and snapped its losing streak of seven consecutive matches without winning the doubles point. The Tulsa duo of McGregor and Shriranga Sudhakara notched their 28th win of the season with an 8-6 win at the top position over the Oggie Kolev and Aleksey Bubis. Arkansas' Magnus Kullenberg and Eduardo Pacheco evened the match when they topped TU's tandem of junior Ryan Livesay and sophomore Dustin Taylor, 9-7. The final doubles point was decided betweet Alejandro Tejerina and Pawel Sebastyanski and Arkansas' duo of Price and Tiago Azevedo. Price and Azevedo jumped out to a 6-3 advantage, but Tejerina and Sebastyanski fought back to even the match at 8-8 and force a tie-breaker. But the Razorbacks took command of the tiebreaker early and cruised to an 8-4 win in the extra set to claim the doubles point and 1-0 advantage.

SMU Falls to VCU in NCAA First Round
The SMU men's tennis team saw its season come to an end in Austin, Texas as the Mustangs failed to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in five years with a 5-2 loss to No. 21 Virginia Commonwealth in a NCAA Regional semi-final match. The Mustangs fell behind early, 1-0, as VCU won the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles. SMU's No. 3 team of Krystian Pfeiffer and Lukasz Senczyszyn won the first doubles match 8-5, but SMU's remaining two pairs couldn't pick up a win. In singles, VCU went up 2-0 before WAC Freshman of the Year Gwinyai Chingoka won in straight sets at No. 3 singles to bring SMU within one, 2-1. Junior Ryan Mauck tied the match at 2-2 with his straight set 6-3, 6-4 win over VCU's Julien Lousau 6-3, 6-4 at the No. 6 spot. VCU's Pedro Neito put his team on top to stay with a 6-4, 7-6 win at No. 2 singles over the Mustang's Johan Brunstrom. Daniel Casquero clinched the match for VCU with a 6-3, 7-6 victory over Alexis Rudzinski at No. 4. Florian Marquardt closed out Pfeiffer soon after, giving VCU a final 5-2 win over the Mustangs.

NCAA Singles Championship
The WAC landed two singles and three doubles teams in this year's NCAA Championships. WAC Player of the Year Krystian Pfeiffer (19-10) of SMU and Tulsa's first team all-WAC member Pawel Sebastyanski (9-12) both made the field of 64. The two both had to pull out of the tournament with injuries.

NCAA Doubles Championship
Tulsa's first team all-WAC duo of Dane McGregor and Shri Sudhakara, Mathias Mathaes and Prakash Venkataraman of Rice, and the first team all-WAC pair Johan Brunstrom and Eric Cohen of SMU all made the 32-team doubles field. McGregor and Sudhakara fell in the first round to James Carmeron and John Chesworth of Furman, 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-0. The pair finished the year with a 28-10 record. Johan Brunstrom and Eric Cohn also fell in the first round, dropping their match to Tobias Clemens and Lassi Ketola of UCLA, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3. The SMU pair finished the year with a 20-11 record. Rice's Mathaes and Venkataraman advanced to the second round, defeating Casey Smith and Jaier Taborga of Notre Dame, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5. In the second round, the duo faced Oliver Maiberger and Ryan Redondo of San Diego State, falling 6-4, 7-6 (5) finishing the year with a 19-12 record.

SMU Lands 2 ITA All-Americans
Johan Brunstrom and Eric Cohn went 20-11 on the year earning them doubles team All-America honros. The pair was highlighted by a trip to the finals of the ITA Indoor Doubles Championship in Dallas in November. Both Brunstrom and Cohn were named All-WAC first team. For Brunstrom, it marked the second straight year the Sweden native was named All-America in doubles play. Last year, Brunstrom was awarded with former Mustang Jon Wallmark.

18 Match Winners
There were five 18 dual-match winners in the WAC this season. Hawai`i's Jorge Gonzalez garnered an 18-8 record on the season, gathering 16 of them from the fifth spot. SMU tallied three athletes with atleats 18 wins. WAC Player of the Year, Krystian Pfeiffer earned 19 wins in 29 matches, and has a chance to become the only WAC player this season to win 20 matches, as he heads to the NCAA singles championship. WAC Freshman of the Year, Gwinyai Chingoka amassed a 19-9 record, playing in each position this season. Lucasz Senczyszyn totalled 18 wins in 28 mathches from the third, fourth and fifth spots. Tulsa's Shri Sudhakara lost only four matches in his 22 matches this season.

Deadly Duos
Three WAC doubles teams earned more than 15 wins this season. SMU's Eric Cohn and Johan Brunstrom, the nation's eighth ranked team, garnered 16 wins from the No. 1 position. The two were named to the all-WAC first team. Tulsa's Dane McGregor and Shri Sudhakara, and Ryan Livesay and Dustin Taylor both grabbed at least 19 wins. The McGregor, Sudhakara pair earned both a national ranking of 17 and first team all-WAC honors, picking up a WAC high, 20 wins in 27 matches.

Schwitters Wins No. 800
Hawai`i head coach, Jim Schwitters earned his 800th win, March 19, in a 6-1 win over Oklahoma. Schwitters is the winningest coach in collegiate tennis, owning a 800-393-8 record in 36 years as the men's head coach. He also owns a 1,258-552-8 overall record, combining both men's and women's tennis.