Ole Miss' Tveit, Poole Ready For All-American Championships

TULSA, Okla. Ole Miss men’s tennis seniors Erling Tveit and Robbye Poole are two of the top players in the nation set to begin competing in the main draw at the ITA Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Championships Thursday at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.

Tveit, a two-time All-American in singles and doubles, comes in seeded No. 7.  He will face a familiar opponent, Martin Sayer of Radford, in the first round Thursday at 8 a.m.  Tveit defeated Sayer in the quarterfinals of the 2006 Baylor Intercollegiate. That match went three sets, with Tveit losing the first one 6-4, before coming back to win 6-2, 6-2.

Poole, ranked No. 18 in the nation, is making his first main draw appearance at the All-American.  The 2007 All-SEC honoree will face qualifier Alex Clayton of Stanford in the first round, also at 8 a.m. 

Senior Bram ten Berge missed out on advancing to the main draw as he dropped a 7-6(2), 6-1 decision to Andrei Daescu of Oklahoma in the final round of qualifying, Wednesday.

Ole Miss will have one doubles team in the main draw.  Tveit and Jonas Berg will face Luis Diaz Barriga and Ed Corrie of Texas in the first round at 5:30 p.m.  The Reb duo captured the Baylor Invitational in September, in their first ever tournament together.

There will be two rounds of singles on Thursday and one round of doubles.

The Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Tennis Championships offer the first national singles and doubles titles of the 2007-08 collegiate tennis season, and are followed by the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in November and the the season-ending NCAA Championships in May.

Former three-time All-American Catalin Gard won this event in 2004, when it was held in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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