Spartans Prepare for Stan Drobac Invite

Oct. 7, 2010

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State men's tennis team will host its second fall tournament the Stan Drobac Invitational this weekend, Friday-Sunday, October 8-10 at the MSU Outdoor Tennis Courts. Play begins on Friday at 2 p.m., and 10 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Teams competing in the event along with MSU will be Ball State, Detroit, Green Bay, Morehead State and Xavier.

"The team is really excited for the weekend," said MSU head coach Gene Orlando. "We opened the season with the Frank Beeman Invitational and we've had three weeks to work on things and we're really excited to show the improvement that we've made in that time, and look forward to playing some good teams."

Michigan State opened its fall season last month at home with the Frank Beeman Invite where the Spartans claimed finals victories in all four singles events and one in the doubles flight. Sophomore Denis Bogatov (Gurnee, Ill.) and red-shirt senior Jason Norville (Farmington Hills, Mich.) took victories in the Green and White flights, respectively.

The freshman duo of Aaron Pfister (Grand Blanc, Mich.) and Drew Lied (Brookfiled, Wis.) took the other singles victories in the Spartan and State Flight, respectively. Pfister defeated fellow Spartan senior Clark Richardson, 6-3, 7-6(5), while Lied also defeated a teammate, taking down sophomore Christian Roehmer (Mt. Pleasant, Mich.), 5-7, 7-6(8).

In the B flight doubles finals match, Bogatov and sophomore Ronnie Hulewicz (Tequesta, Fla.) defeated teammates Lied and sophomore Will Davis (Louisville, Ky.), 8-6, 6-4, handing the pair its first doubles loss of the tournament.

"We had a successful last tournament winning five of six flights," said senior Jason Norville. "I think we can take a lot of that momentum into this weekend. We spent a lot of time both playing tennis and conditioning and lifting and we feel good."

Stan Drobac was the head coach at Michigan State for 32 years, from 1958-1989, and a Spartan athlete from 1949-1953. As a student-athlete, Drobac captured the Big Ten singles title in 1953, after finishing runner-up in 1952. He also earned the Big Ten doubles title in 1952 and 1953. Captain for the 1952 season, Drobac led the Spartans to an unblemished 10-0 record. Before attending MSU, Drobac, along with former MSU men's tennis coach, Frank Beeman, who also preceded Drobac's coaching reign and coached Drobac as a student-athlete, competed in doubles play at Wimbledon.

Throughout his coaching career, Drobac made a substantial impact on the Michigan State tennis program. He led the Spartans to the Big Ten title in 1967 and finished second three times as well as two third-place finishes. Under Drobac, ten individual conference singles titles were claimed by the Spartans, along with four conference doubles titles. He was inducted into the Intercollegiate Tennis Hall of Fame in 1990.

For updated results on this weekend's action, please visit www.msuspartans.com.