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News Release

Men's Tennis is Top Seed for This Weekend's America East Tennis Championships; Women Seeded Third

4/25/2007

BOSTON— The 2007 America East Tennis Championship will be held at the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven, Conn. Friday (April 27) through Sunday (April 29). The men’s and women’s meets are team-match format with finals scheduled to be held on Sunday at 11 a.m. Both conference champions receive automatic bids to the NCAA Championships.  UMBC is the top seed in the men’s field, followed by No. 2 Boston University. Defending champion Stony Brook in the third spot, while No. 4 Binghamton and No. 5 Hartford round out the five-team field. The Retrievers will take on the winner of the Binghamton vs. Hartford match in the semi-finals, scheduled for Saturday at 10:00 a.m.

 Boston University, which has won each of the 13 previous America East Women’s Tennis Championships and 17 of the 18 title events in league history, is again the top seed on the women’s side. Binghamton University is the second seed, followed by UMBC. Stony Brook University is the No. 4 seed, while University at Albany is seeded No. 5. and with No. 6 University of Hartford rounding out the women’s field. The Retrievers open play vs. Hartford on Friday with a 1:00 p.m. match.

First round matches begin Friday afternoon and Saturday is highlighted by semifinal matches.

America East Men’s Tennis Championship
April 27-29, Connecticut Tennis Center, New Haven, Conn.

Friday, April 27
Match 1 -- Opening Round #4 Binghamton vs. #5 Hartford, 1 p.m.

Saturday, April 28
Match 2 -- Winner of Match 1 vs. #1 UMBC, 10 a.m.
Match 3 -- #2 Boston U. vs. #3 Stony Brook, 10 a.m.
Match 4 -- Loser of Match 2 vs. Loser Match 3, 3 p.m.

Sunday, April 29
Match 5 -- Winner of Match 2 vs. Winner of Match 3 (Championship), 11 a.m.*

America East Women’s Tennis Championship
April 27-29, Connecticut Tennis Center, New Haven, Conn.

Friday, April 27
Match 1 -- Opening Round #4 Stony Brook vs. #5 Albany, 1 p.m.
Match 2 -- Opening Round #3 UMBC vs. #6 Hartford, 1 p.m.

Saturday, April 28
Match 3 -- Loser of Match 1 vs. Loser of Match 2, 1 p.m.
Match 4 -- Winner of Match 1 vs. #1 Boston U., 1 p.m.
Match 5 -- Winner of Match 2 vs. #2 Binghamton, 1 p.m.

Sunday, April 29
Match 6 -- Winner of Match 4 vs. Winner of Match 5 (Championship), 11 a.m.

 Men’s Tennis Notebook

 

UMBC finished the 2007 season with a record of 13-5, with one match (at St. Joseph’s) unfinished… the Retrievers won eight of their last nine matches… three of UMBC’s five losses occurred to ranked teams (Virginia Tech, Maryland, Drake)… the Retrievers played all four America East opponents during the spring and were a perfect 4-0… this season will be UMBC’s first winning season since 2004 (10-6), although the Retrievers finished just below the .500 mark in both 2006 (11-12) and 2005 (10-11)… UMBC won Northeast Conference championships from 2000-2003 and competed in the NCAA Tournament in each season… the Retrievers have lost in the semi-finals in all three previous America East Conference Tournament appearances… this season marks the first time that UMBC has been a No. 1 seed at the conference championships… they were a No. 3 seed in 2006 and 2005 and a No. 2 seed in their first year in the league in 2004.

 

Head Coach Keith Puryear is now 211-170 in his 17th season at the helm of the men’s program… he is 409-291 (.584) overall and coached his 700th intercollegiate match when the men played at Villanova on Tuesday.

 

Player Notes

 

No. 1 junior Irfan Shamasdin was the America East Player of the Week on April 18… Shamasdin has won 18 of his last 19 doubles matches and is 24-5 this season in doubles… he has a narrow lead as UMBC’s active wins leader with 82, just one ahead of classmate David Jackson… Jackson, UMBC’s No. 3 singles player, earned America East Player of the Week honors on April 3… the junior continues to be UMBC’s hottest player, with 14 straight doubles victories (teamed at No. 2 with Shamasdin) and ten in a row in singles… he has a sterling combined record this year of 37-13 (17-9 singles, 20-4 doubles)… another junior, No. 6 singles seed Fernando Ferreria is a hair better than Jackson record-wise with a mark of 37-12 overall (19-6, 18-6)… Ferreria was the America East Player of the Week on March 27.

 

Sophomore Nick Savage-Pollock led UMBC in total victories in his freshman season when he went 29-20 last year… he has competed mostly at No. 5 singles and No. 1 doubles in ’07 and has a solid mark of 32-20… Savage-Pollock and freshman Fredi Voorman earned a national ranking of No. 85 early in the spring campaign… Voorman, who entered UMBC for the spring semester, is 13-6 with Savage-Pollock at No. 1 doubles this spring and has won seven straight singles matches at No. 4 to go 15-4… it is freshman Chris Meyer, at No. 2 singles, who leads UMBC in victories this season with 41 (41-18)… he produced a brilliant fall campaign and also leads the Retrievers in singles victories this season with 24 (24-10)… he won the “B” flighht singles bracket of the Hampton Roads Collegiate Tennis Invitational of Newport News and the Flight “C” singles in the Cornell Invitational in his collegiate debut.

 

Two senior reserves, Mehrban Iranshad (team captain) and Victor Ng have overall marks of 14-7 and 7-5 respectively this year… junior Lief Hollowell is 9-10 and freshman Logan Bricker is 5-1 to round out the squad.

 

Shamasdin, Jackson, Ferreria and Hollowell were all named to the America East Conference Second Team in their freshman seasons of 2005.

Women’s Tennis Notebook

 

UMBC finished the season with a record of 11-5, having won six of its last seven and ten of its last 12 matches… UMBC split four matches with America East opponents, defeating Hartford and Stony Brook and falling to Boston University and Binghamton… the women’s program has produced winning records in 10 of the last 11 years, bouncing back in ’07 from its first losing record (9-11 in ’06) since 1996… UMBC won six consecutive league championships (Big South, 1998, Northeast Conference, 1999-2003) before its 2004 America East debut… the No. 2-seeded Retrievers reached the finals that year, falling to Boston University… in 2005 and 2006, UMBC has been the No. 3 seed and fell to No. 2 Binghamton in the semi-finals each time.

 

Head Coach Keith Puryear is now 198-121 in his 15th season at the helm of the women’s program… he is 409-291 (.584) overall and coached his 700th intercollegiate match when the men played at Villanova on Tuesday.

 

Player Notes

 

Senior captains Adriana Fonseca and Elizabeth Anderson are UMBC’s career leaders in victories… Fonseca is the leader in overall wins with 82 and singles wins with 51, while Anderson has 35 career doubles victories… Fonseca has crafted a career-best 19 singles wins this year (19-6), competing predominantly at No. 5 singles… she has won 12 of her last 14 singles affairs…junior Pascaline Cette leads the 2006-07 team with 20 singles victories and 37 overall wins… the native of France has won 11 of her last 12 singles matches and her last three singles losses have all occurred in three sets… Cette is 43-19 all-time in singles… sophomores Joy Adewumi and Cornelia Carapcea have produced solid spring seasons… Adewumi is 16-14 while being elevated to No. 2 singles and won eight of nine matches before a recent three-match slide… Carapcea had a tough fall, but has won eight of her last ten singles matches at the No. 4 slot… freshman Alice Chen has done an outstanding job as the No. 1 singles player in her initial campaign… she has a singles mark of 14-12 and a doubles record of 17-11, partnered at the No. 1 doubles slot with Cette.