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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebel Netters To Compete In Southeast Regional This Weekend
10/15/2003 | Men's Tennis
Oct. 15, 2003
OXFORD, Miss. - Members of the Ole Miss men's tennis team will be competing in Memphis this weekend at the ITA Southeast Regional Championships at the Racquet Club. The singles finalists and doubles champions from this event will earn spots in the November 6-9 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships at the University of Michigan.
The Southeast Regional features a competitive field with some of the top collegiate tennis players in the country. Georgia's Bo Hodge, the No. 2 singles player in the country, will come to Memphis as the tournament's top seed. Hodge will be joined by three other players who are among the top 10 singles players in the nation. Kentucky's Jesse Witten comes to Memphis as the No. 9 singles player in the country, while Ole Miss' Catalin Gard enters the field ranked No. 10. In all, 14 of the country's top 100 singles players will compete at The Racquet Club this weekend.
Joining Gard in the field this weekend for the Rebels will be 18th-ranked Paul Ciorascu, Claes Lindholm, Karim Alayli and Fredrik Aarum. David Donaldson will start his tournament participation in the qualifying round, hoping to be one of the eight players who advance to the main draw by winning their way in.
Donaldson will meet LSU's Brandon Nicholson in the first round of qualifying Thursday at 12:30 p.m. If he wins he would play again at 3:30 for the right to advance to the main draw. In main draw singles, which begins Friday, Gard, Ciorascu and Lindholm all drew first-round byes. Aarum will face a qualifier in the first round at 10:45 a.m. Friday. Alayli will face Rawl Martin of Tennessee at 9:45 a.m. in the first round.
The Southeast Regional is one of nine NCAA Division I men's regionals that will be taking place over the last three weeks of October at campuses throughout the country. The Memphis regional will be one of four taking place this weekend. The University of Tulsa will host the Central Championships, beginning Thursday as well, and the University of Oregon will host the West Regional, beginning Friday. Also starting Friday will be the Northeast Regional, hosted by Cornell University.
The 2003 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, the tournament this weekend's participants will be trying to qualify for, is the nation's premier collegiate indoor tennis tournament, and is the second of three national championship events for the college tennis season.