ATHENS, Ga. - Boise State University men’s tennis player Luke Shields run in the 2007 Men’s Tennis Championships was cut short, Thursday, when he was forced to retire in the second set of the second round to Robbye Poole of Ole Miss.
Luke Shields battled Poole in the first set but fell 6-4, however in the second set Shields was forced to withdraw from the match because of health related issues, forfeiting the opportunity to advance in the singles competition. Shields was named Western Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Player of the years and concluded the season with a 35-7 record to lead Boise State in winning percentage and overall wins.
Luke Shields played through the pain and participated in the doubles competition along with Piotr Dilaj during the afternoon session. The duo from Boise State faced Ken Skupski and James Cluskey of LSU in a best of three set format, and fell in straight sets 7-5 and 6-3 to end their run in the doubles tournament. Dilaj and Shields concluded the year 14-10 including being named First Team All-WAC in doubles.
Earlier on Thursday, No. 15 Luke Shields of the Boise State University men’s tennis team defeated No. 62 Nick Rinks of Michigan State in straight sets, 6-2 and 6-1, to advance to the Round of 32 in the singles competition.
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No. 61 Clancy Shields also participated in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships. He faced Greg Ouellette of Florida in the Round of 64 and fell in straight sets 6-2 and 6-4. Clancy Shields ended his season 24-13 in singles play.
In a hard-fought match that lasted more than three hours, University of Hawai`i men's tennis player Andreas Weber eventually fell to Arkansas' Blake Strode, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) in the opening round of the NCAA Singles Championship Wednesday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on the campus of the University of Georgia.
Both players earned at-large invitations into the tournament and were closely ranked, with Strode 44th in the latest FILA/ITA rankings and Weber 48th. Weber, the first Rainbow Warrior in program history to earn a bid to the NCAAs, came tantalizing close to advancing with a pair of match points, but it was the sophomore Strode who moved on to the round of 32 after winning the third-set tiebreaker.