For Immediate Release:  May 3, 2007
Contact:  Marsha Nishi Mullan     
610-328-8535      
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/

Four Teams Headed to Championship Play;
Swarthmore to Host NCAA Div. III Men's Tennis

Four Swarthmore teams are headed to championship tournament play this weekend. Men's tennis earned a berth to the NCAA Division III Championships and was also selected to host the first three rounds for the Atlantic South Region to be held Friday through Sunday, May 4-6, on the Faulkner Courts.

The women's tennis team also won a spot in the NCAA Division III Championships and will travel to Washington and Lee in Lexington, Va., to play their 5th consecutive NCAA tournament.  Softball and track and field will compete in Centennial Conference Championships at Ursinus and Haverford, respectively.  Read more at http://www.swarthmore.edu/x11481.xml.

This will be the men's tennis team's 13th consecutive trip to the nationals, having missed only one year (1994) in the last 30. This year, after a rocky first half, the Garnet closed its season with five straight wins against #11 Mary Washington, #23 Bates, Salisbury State, Washington (Md.), and Haverford to make the tournament.

In round one on Friday, May 4, at 3 p.m., Baruch College (City University of New York) will face off against Alvernia College (Reading, Pa.) in both colleges' first-ever NCAA appearance, to see who will go on to the second-round match on Saturday at 11 a.m. against defending champions, Emory University, currently ranked third in the country in Div. III.

Swarthmore begins play on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. against the College of New Jersey. In their last match-up on April 6, Swarthmore, minus #1 singles player, Jon Reiss, due to injury, lost to CNJ (8-1).

Playing for the Garnet on Saturday will be, singles: Jon Reiss '07, Jon Lo '08, Brian Nalitt '10, Willy Nolan '10, Kevin Shaughnessy '09, and J.J. England '09; and doubles: Reiss and Lo, Nalitt and Shaughnessy, Nolan and Mark Greenburg '09. Other team members are Suneal Bedi '09, Alex DeGolia '07, Justin DiFeliciantonio '10, Shingo Murata '07, Nachiketa Rao '09, Sam Sidhu '07, and Dan Wulc '09.

The winners of Saturday's matches will play Sunday, May 6, at 12 p.m. to determine which team will then proceed to the NCAA quarterfinal, semifinal and final rounds to be played at Washington University in St. Louis on May 18-20.

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