2001 ITA Omni Hotels Region IV Championship Preview
10/23/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Oct. 23, 2001
East Lansing, Mich. - The center of attention for regional tennis focuses on Michigan State University Friday through Monday (October 26-29). A total of 30 college teams from the midwest bring their best players to the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility to do battle for the 2001 Omni Hotels Region IV Championships.
The Spartans will have four singles and one doubles team entered into the main draw which gets underway Friday, October 26, at 8 a.m. Illinois, Minnesota, Notre Dame, and Ohio State lead the way with six singles players each and, along with Purdue, they also lead in number of doubles teams with three. With the exception of Penn State, all Big Ten teams will be represented.
Each day's results will be posted on the official website of Michigan State athletics (www.msuspartans.com). Singles finalists and doubles champions will advance to the 2001 Omni Hotels National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, held November 8-11 outside Dallas, Texas.
MEDIA AND SID NOTES: The official title of the regional tournament is: Omni Hotels 2001 Region IV Championships. Please use Omni Hotels in the title. The tournament logo will be faxed with this release to the newspapers in the Lansing area...If any sports information tennis contacts would like to receive results at a different fax number, please contact the MSU sports information office...Phone number for the Indoor Tennis Facility: (517) 355-2209...ITA's official website: www.itatennis.com...ITA Region IV programs will be available each day of the tournament. Please send a request if you would like one faxed or mailed to your office...Besides the MSU Indoor Tennis Facility, the Michigan Athletic Club will also hold matches for the tournament.
SERVING SPARTANS: With home-court advantage on their side, six members of the Spartan tennis squad will be competing this weekend. Junior Goran Topalo (Prague, Czech Rep.), sophomore Chris Mitchell (Ann Arbor, Mich.), and freshmen Andrew Formanczyk (Rochester Hills, Mich.) and Cameron Marshall (Louisville, Ky) will play singles while juniors Adam Hourani (Lansing, Mich.) and Jimmy McGuire (Columbus, Ohio) team up to compete in doubles.
MESMORIZING MARSHALL: Freshman Cameron Marshall enters the ITA tournament with the only winning singles record on the men's tennis team. Hailing from Saint Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky, Marshall opened his collegiate career at the Ball State Invitational winning four of five matches. He also went 3-2 at the Tom Fallon Invitational at Notre Dame.
DOSE OF DOUBLES: Although they have yet to compete together this season, Adam Hourani and Jimmy McGuire combine to form the Spartans lone doubles representative. Hourani holds a 5-2 doubles record (3-1 with sophomore Mike Hodge and 2-1 with Goran Topalo) while McGuire sits at 0-3 (one loss each with sophomore Mike Jonckheere, Chris Mitchell and Hodge).
INDOOR INTELLIGENCE: The last time Michigan State hosted the ITA Omni Hotels Region IV Championships was in 1999 when it was under the name Rolex Regional Championships. MSU's Francisco Trinidad and Ken Kigongo won the doubles draw to advance to the National Indoor Championships. The previous two ITA regional tournaments were held in Madison, Wisconsin. A total of 17 regional tournaments, men and women, will take place across the country with over 1,000 players taking part in every division.
SOWING THE SEEDS: Numerous ranked players will be coming to East Lansing on Friday and will be bringing a high seed with them. Illinois's Amer Delic drew the first seed and Ohio State's Phil Metz, ranked No. 12 in the nation, earned the second seed. Illinois will also hold the first seed in doubles with Delic and Michael Calkins pairing up. Delic won the doubles crown last year with Graydon Oliver. Minnesota's Tom Haug, ranked No. 51, will be defending his singles title as the ninth seed. Also representing Minnesota, Harsh Mankad will enter the tournament ranked No. 22 in the nation and with good reason. In Davis Cup qualifying this month, Mankad represented India and faced American teenage sensation Andy Roddick from the United States, but fell in three sets.
HEAD HONCHO: MSU head coach Gene Orlando brings 13 years of collegiate coaching experience into the 2001-2002 season. He begins his 11th season as the leader of Spartan tennis with a cumulative record of 110-146. His playing career includes induction into the Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame where he posted an overall record of 91-40 in singles and 98-24 in doubles.