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RIPON, Wis. – The 2011 Midwest Conference Men’s Tennis Championships will play out starting on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 6-8 at the Nielsen Tennis Center on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison, Wis. The MWC Team Champion will be crowned on Friday with the individual singles and doubles tournaments following on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
In the team tournament there will be two new comers and two returners from the 2010 championship. In the North Division, St. Norbert (9-11, 4-0) holds the top seed after a perfect mark in division play, only one game better than Carroll whose only division blemish was a 7-2 loss to St. Norbert. Grinnell (20-7, 4-0) claimed its 11th straight South Division title over Monmouth (19-6, 3-1) who returns to the team tournament for the first time since 2009. The semifinal matches will take place at 9 a.m. when Grinell will faceoff with Carroll and Monmouth will battle St. Norbert. The two winners will then compete for a chance at an NCAA Tournament bid.
Carroll enters after their second straight season of 10 or more wins under the direction of coach Craig Mours. The Pioneers will compete in the team tournament on Friday looking for their first MWC Championship in schools history after going 16-7 during the regular season. Kevin Rasmussen holds a team-high 11 individual wins in the first flight and also has a combined seven wins in doubles play. Matt Joost also will contend for an individual championship earning six wins in the No. 4 flight and five wins in the No. 5 flight. Cody Porter and Frankie Giuffre have paired for a 6-2 record in the third doubles flight and another two wins in the second flight.
Andy Hamilton returns three individual champions and two doubles champion pairs from last season as Grinnell aims for their 13th team championship on Friday in Madison. The Pioneers have won six of the last seven championships and are led by Juan Carlos Perez. Perez is the ranked third in the Central Region and is a near-perfect 24-1 on the season out of the number one flight. Dmitriy Glumov (18-5 No. 2 flight) and Ishan Bhadkamkar (13-8 over four different flights) also return after individual championships in the second and sixth flights in 2010, respectively. Perez and Glumov will defend their No. 1 doubles championship after going 24-2 during the regular season and the duo of Michael Cole and Colin Johnson are 14-7 in the No. 2 doubles flight after winning the No. 3 flight last season.
After finishing ninth at the 2010 championships Illinois C. and first year head coach Chad Nelson look to move up the standings in 2011. The Blueboys look to Mike Evans and Mitchell Davidson in the first and third flights while John Hoefert picked up the lone win for the team in the No. 4 flight. Evans and Colin Ladd will lead the doubles pairs out of the No. 1 flight and the team of Michael Gilbreth and Joshua Kuehn has earned a doubles win in the No. 3 flight.
Second year Knox Head Coach John Baillie brings a young team to Madison for the championships as he fields no seniors and only one junior. Erik Hane leads the Prairie Fire with seven wins out of the No. 1 flight and teams with Shaun Mulani for an 8-8 record in the No. 1 doubles flight. David Ham (4-11 in No. 3 flight) and Andrei Papancea (5-12 in No. 6 flight) will compliment Hane and contend for individual championships. Along with Hane and Mulani the Prairie Fire rely on the No. 2 doubles flight of Ham and Kenton Tilford picking up three wins on the season.
Despite barely missing out on the team tournament, Lake Forest Head Coach Jason Box returns four players that reached individual championship matches in 2010. Elliot Muth (No. 2 flight) and Chris Paterakos (No. 5 flight) return after earning runner-up honors last season. Muth has seven dual match wins in singles play and Paterakos is 9-8 in the No. 5 flight. Reigning No. 3 singles flight champion John Adams is 9-2 in the same flight this season and paired with Muth is 11-7 in the No. 1 doubles flight. Ryan Kreis finished the season with the third-most wins in the No. 1 singles flight (12) and holds a 14-4 record with Jon Flaksman in the No. 2 doubles flight. Flaksman will also contend in the No. 4 singles flight, going 12-5 during the regular season and winning eight of his last ten matches.
Lawrence missed the team tournament for the first time since 2007 but head coach Kevin Girard still brings a talented team to Madison in search of individual championships. The Vikings bring back Jason Dunn, 2010 No. 3 flight runner up, who has nine wins in the No. 1 flight this season. Caleb Ray will play in the No. 2 flight with an 11-7 record on the season and is paired with Jeremy Andereck in the No. 2 doubles flight where they have seven wins. Dunn will team with Max Zlevor in the No. 1 doubles flight in search of a championship a year after Dunn finished runner up in the No. 1 doubles flight.
After missing the team tournament in 2010 the Fighting Scots will be back in search of their first team championship since 1938 when they shared the title with Lawrence. Under the direction of head coach Chad Braun Monmouth brings a talented team to Madison led by five players with double figure wins in single play. David Johnson leads the way with 19 wins (11-3 in No. 2 flight, 8-1 in No. 3 flight) followed closely by David Stewart with 18 wins (15-6 in No. 4 flight). Chris Franco holds a 14-11 mark in the No. 1 flight and Ben Morrow sports an 11-2 mark in the No. 6 flight. The duo of Johnson and Stewart hold a 19-5 mark in the No. 1 doubles flight, second best in the conference, while the combination of Chris Franco and Chris Utterback account for a 15-8 mark. After being paired together in March, Tyler Lampe and Ben Ben Morrow have gone 11-1, winning their last eight decisions.
Ripon looks to improve from last year’s eighth place finish under first year head coach Robert Henshaw who leads a team that returns only two from a season ago. Sam Ewig will play in the No. 2 singles flight, where he has two wins this season, and will team with Derrick Winterhack in the No. 1 doubles flight during championship weekend. Winterhack will also play out of the No. 1 singles while Alex Tande will compete in the No. 4 singles. Tande and Jackson Vogel will pair up in the No. 2 doubles flight and Jeffery Mehlert and Xia Xiong will play out of the No. 3 doubles flight for the Red Hawks.
St. Norbert advances to the team tournament for the eighth straight season and competes for the first team championship in school history. First year head coach Adam Albertsen brings a talented team to the championships led by Matt Lobeck. Lobeck holds a team-high 11 wins out of the No. 3 flight and also has a 10-9 doubles record. Tim Harwick has eight wins for the Green Knights as Nick Acosta and Derek Harrington hold a team-high nine wins in the No. 1 doubles flight.