Colorado University Athletics

Men?s Tennis To Battle Arizona At NCAA Tournament 1st Round

Men?s Tennis To Battle Arizona At NCAA Tournament 1st Round
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BOULDER ? The University of Colorado men’s tennis team heads to UCLA this weekend to take on the No. 43 Arizona Wildcats, Saturday, at 11 a.m. (mountain standard time) in the first round of the 64-team NCAA Tournament. If the Buffaloes win, they will advance to play the winner of UCLA/Stony Brook on Sunday at 2 p.m.

CU (19-8) is ranked No. 23 nationally in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association/Fila rankings, while the Wildcats (12-9), representing the Pacific-10 Conference finished fifth in conference play are 43rd. The Bruins (17-5) are the NCAA defending champion and finished atop the Pac-10 standings; the Sea Wolves (14-6) gained an automatic tournament berth by winning the American East Conference championship.

All three matches at UCLA will feature live scoring (http://uclabruins.cstv.com/).

The winner of the four-team bracket will advance to the Round of 16 hosted by Stanford University, May 18-23 at the Taube Family Tennis Center in Palo Alto, Calif.

Arizona leads the head-to-head series with CU winning all four times, including three on neutral courts. They last played March 8, 1992.

Saturday’s match up will be the 22nd time this spring season the Buffaloes will be playing a ranked team. In singles, junior Eric Molnar is ranked No. 51st in the country with a  25-16 record, while Arizona’s No. 1 doubles team is ranked at No. 49 (Claudio Christen/Jeff Groslimond). The UA pair is 8-8. 

Molnar is one of the 64 singles players selected to play at the NCAA singles tournament, May 24-29 at the Stanford Taube Tennis Center.  He’s the first CU men’s player since 1996 to play in the singles tournament when Marc Bauer advanced to the Round of 32.

CU will be striving for their 20th victory and attempting to equal the last men’s team to win that many in a season. Marko Bundalo will be trying to be the sixth CU player this season to win 20 matches. Already a school record for players with at least 20 wins, Bundalo has 19 so far and hopes to join teammates Peter Bjork (27), Marek Dvorak (25), Molnar (25), Chad Tsuda (22), Jan Zelezny (22).

 

CU match notes entering the NCAA Tournament:

- CU is 6-2 against teams ranked No. 26 through 50; CU is 2-6 against the nation’s Top-25

- 6-6 on neutral courts

- defeated 13 nationally ranked schools this spring

- biggest upset victory was defeating No. 19 Texas A&M (4-2) back on April 7

- Since March 26, CU is 10-3 (only losses were No. 3/t4 Texas and No. 6 Baylor)

- No. 23 nationally ranking is their highest ranking ever

 

- finished third overall in the Big 12 Conference, their highest since 1997 when they finished third

- advanced to the Big 12 Tennis Championships semifinal, a first since 1997

- won five Big 12 matches, the most since 1998

- won the Mountain Region title during the spring achieving a school-first 12-0 record. They also won the ITA Mountain Regional Playoff in January at Boise State

 

- Marek Dvorak and Eric Molnar have joined fellow teammate Peter Bjork (27 wins) as the only trio in school history from the same year with at least 25 triumphs in a single year. Bjork is tied for second all-time, followed by Dvorak and Molnar in sixth place

- Eric Molnar was named Big 12 Player of the Week (April 2-9) after defeating the ITA/Fila No. 8 Jerry Makowski, Texas A&M 6-1, 6-1; and No. 7 Travis Helgeson, 6-4, 7-6(5) of Texas

- Peter Bjork has won 27 singles, the most of any CU player since Stefan Figley went 27-7 in 1991-92 conference opponents

- Eric Molnar was one of three finalists as CUSPY’s Male Athlete of the Year