Rinks and Monich Set For NCAA Doubles Championships
5/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
May 20, 2008
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Head Coach Gene Orlando
Senior Nick Rinks
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State men's tennis seniors Nick Rinks and Adam Monich have earned an at-large bid to the 2008 NCAA Division 1 Tennis Championships. The singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 21-26 at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla. The University of Tulsa will serve as host.
The senior duo will matchup with junior Sasha Ermakov and senior Ashwin Kumer of Harvard on Thursday. The Harvard pair is currently ranked No. 34 in the nation, while going 15-3 at No. 1 doubles in dual-match play, and 23-7 overall.
Currently ranked No. 23 in the nation, the senior pair of Rinks and Monich qualify for the NCAA Championships for the second-consecutive season, but did not participate in last year's championships due to injury.
The combo of Rinks and Monich dominated the competition all season, reaching as high as No. 11 in the ITA rankings. They had an overall record of 14-3 on the year, while going undefeated in dual-match play (11-0), including four wins over top-25 ranked opponents in the 2007-08 season. Their first big win of the year came at the ITA All-American Invite in early October as they downed Texas' No. 4 Dimitar Kutrovsky and Josh Zavala, 8-6. Rinks and Monich had a tough matchup against Tulsa's No. 5 Ross Cunningham and Andy Connelly on Feb. 8, but escaped with another 8-6 victory. On Feb. 29, the Spartan seniors continued their strong play with an 8-6 win over the No. 20 ranked team, Billy Heiser and Ryan Rowe of Illinois. They capped it all off with a win over Big Ten Rival Michigan on March 13, blowing past No. 24 Matko Maravic and George Navas, 8-4.
Rinks and Monich have posted a doubles record of 40-22 in their careers together at Michigan State.
