Boise State senior Thomas Schoeck and sophomore Luke Shields will compete in the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships, May 24-29, at the Taube Tennis Center in Stanford, Calif.
Click Here for a PDF of the NCAA Men's Tennis Release
Click Here for the Live ScoreboardIn singles competition Shields, ranked No. 45 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, will open the Round of 64 against No. 18 Todd Paul of Wake Forest, Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. (PDT). Shields and Schoeck (No. 22) will open the doubles’ Round of 32 against No. 12 Brian Hung and Matko Maravic of Michigan, Thursday. The time for the match has not yet been set.
Shields and Schoeck earned an automatic bid in doubles as the highest-ranked duo in the Western Athletic Conference. Shields also earned an automatic birth in singles competition as the highest ranked individual from the WAC. In each conference, if more than one individual or doubles team is ranked, the highest-rated person or team according to the ITA is awarded the automatic bid.
Shields is 25-13 this season in singles competition, while Paul is 26-13. Paul has lost six of his last eight matches, with each loss coming to an individual ranked in the ITA top 40. Shields has lost each of his last three matches, each of which coming against a ranked ITA player.
Schoeck and Shields are 25-9 in doubles competition this year, while Hung and Maravic are 25-10. The Bronco duo has won each of its last nine matches, while the Michigan duo has lost three of its last six.
At last year’s championships, Shields became the first-ever Bronco to earn All-America status in both singles and doubles competition.
Shields beat G.D. Jones of Illinois and No. 5 Ludovic Walter of Duke before falling to Benjamin Kohlloeffel (No. 11) in the Round of 16. It was only the second time in Boise State history that an individual earned All-America status in singles. Shields and Schoeck (No. 11) defeated No. 23 Geraldo Knorr and Pedro Rodrigues of South Carolina before losing in the Round of 16 to No. 5 Mark Growcott and Ken Skupski of LSU.
FRESNO STATE’S CECH TO PLAY IN NCAA SINGLES TOURNAMENT ? Junior Jakub Cech will compete in the NCAA singles tournament beginning on Wednesday, May 24, at the Taube Tennis Center on the campus of Stanford University.
Cech had an outstanding season playing in the No. 1 singles spot for the Bulldogs. He was the team’s MVP and was named the WAC Player of the Year.
Cech began the season unranked, but defeated then-No. 54 John Nguyen of Cal Poly in his first dual match of the year. From there, Cech never looked back, leading the Bulldogs to a second place finish at the WAC tournament and an undefeated record at home.
Some of Cech’s most impressive wins of the year included defeats of then-No. 18 Roger Matalonga of Arizona and then-No. 19 Alex Slovic of Washington. Cech also beat then-No. 25 Luke Shields of Boise State twice, once in Fresno and the other in Boise.
BRONCOS EARN POSTSEASON AWARDS ? Morgan Shepherd, Thomas Schoeck and Luke Shields have all been awarded Intercollegiate Tennis Association Mountain Region awards. Schoeck won the Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship award and the John Van Nostrand Memorial future professional award. Other Bronco honorees included Morgan Shepherd, who was named the Mountain Region’s Assistant Coach of the Year, and Luke Shields, who was named the Mountain Region’s Player to Watch.
WAC TOURNAMENT REVIEW ? In a tightly contested battle, top-seeded Boise State defeated second-seeded Fresno State, 4-3. The Broncos Thomas Schoeck defeated Sergui Modoc 6-7 (2), 6-2, 7-6 (4) for the clincher. This is the Broncos second-straight WAC title. Fresno State’s Jakub Cech was named WAC Player of the Year, while Boise State’s Greg Patton earned his second-straight WAC Coach of the Year honor.
The last time that the final was the same for both the men and the women was in 2001. In that season, TCU defeated Fresno State in both the men’s and women’s finals. The Fresno State women’ defeated the Boise State women’ by the same, 4-3 score.
2006 All-WAC Men’s Tennis Team
First-Team Singles Jakub Cech, Fresno State
Sascha Heinemann, Hawai?i
Brice Magnanou, News Mexico State
Thomas Schoeck, Boise State
Clancy Shields, Boise State
Luke Shields, Boise State
Second-Team Singles Stejpan Beg, New Mexico State
Sergui Modoc, Fresno State
Eric Roberson, Boise State
Ryan Sceats, Hawai?i
Rudolf Siwy, Fresno State
Bryon Weinberg, Hawai?i
First-Team Doubles Luke Shields/Thomas Schoeck, Boise State
Sergui Modoc/Sam Gibbs, Fresno State
Clancy Shields/Steve Robertson, Boise State
Second-Team Doubles Brice Magnanou/ Stejpan Beg, New Mexico State
Ryan Sceats/Jarrod Diepraam, Hawai?i
Charles Irie/Rudolf Siwy, Fresno State
WAC Coach of the Year: Greg Patton, Boise State
WAC Freshman of the Year: Sascha Heinemann, Hawai?i
WAC Player of the Year: Jakub Cech, Fresno State