TULSA, Okla. - The University of Hawai`i men's tennis team will kickoff the 2010-11 season at the D'Novo/ITA All-American Championships, beginning Saturday, Oct. 2 with the prequalifying rounds, at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla.
More than 300 collegiate players from across the nation will play in the most prestigious singles and doubles tournament of the fall season. The D'Novo ITA All-American Tennis Championships entails five days of qualifying events beginning with a 256-player pre-qualifying singles tournament, which takes place on Oct. 2-3. The pre-qualifying feeds into 128-player and 64-doubles team qualifying tournaments on Oct. 4-6, which then feeds into the 64-player, 32-doubles team main draws on Oct. 7-10.
Brooklyn, Kovalyov, Spiker and Tweedt will be competing in the pre-qualifying draw on Saturday, while Lajola will start in the qualifying draw. The doubles draw will be announced later this weekend. Last year, Lajola was only one of 48 automatic qualifiers for the main draw. The senior enters this year at No. 106 in the preseason ITA singles rankings.
Highlighting this year's men's singles field is top seed John-Patrick Smith of the University of Tennessee, who last year became only the third player in history and the first since 1998 to win both the singles and doubles titles at the ITA All-American Championships.
What: D'Novo/ITA All-American Championships
Date: Oct. 2-10, 2010
Time: All Day
Where: Michael D. Case Tennis Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
2009-10 Season Recap: The University of Hawai'i men's tennis team concluded the season ranked 35th in the final ITA Men's Division I rankings. It is the highest ranking ever for the Rainbow Warrior program. It was another banner year for the Rainbow Warriors who won both the Western Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championship – a double-dip first for the program – and qualified for their third straight NCAA Tournament.
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