Molnar Earns NCAA Tournament Singles Bid; First CU Player Since 1996

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. ? One day after his school was named one of the 64 teams selected to complete in the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship Tournament, junior Eric Molnar finds himself going to Stanford as one of the 64 singles players selected by The NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Subcommittee.

Molnar, a junior from Guelph, Ontario, Canada, was a 2006 All-Big 12 singles selection complying a 25-16 record this season, including 13 wins this spring. He also won 11 matches playing the No. 1 singles position and defeated eight nationally ranked players. Currently the No. 51^st ranked singles player, he is the first University of Colorado men’s player since 1996 when Marc Bauer advanced to the Round of 32.

Molnar was one of 36 At-Large singles players selected. Overall, there were 16 seeded players and 12 automatic qualifiers from 16 conferences. His 25 victories for the season was second on the Buffaloes and his overall win total is the sixth most in school history.

Prior to competing in the singles competition, Molnar will join his CU teammates next Saturday, May 13 in Los Angeles when the No. 23 ranked Buffaloes (19-8) play No. 43 Arizona (12-9) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. If CU defeats the Wildcats, they will advance to play the winner of No. 10 UCLA or Stony Brook in round two.

The singles competition will be conducted May 24-29 at the Taube Tennis Center in Stanford, Calif., following the conclusion of the team championship (May 20-23). The singles seeds are based upon competition between September 7, 2005 and April 30, 2006.

The selection of teams and individuals for the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships is based on the prescribed criteria listed in the championships handbook and approved by the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet.

Automatic qualification into the Division I singles championships will be awarded to any conference with one or more singles players ranked in the ITA Top 125 for singles. For conferences with more than one singles player within the ITA Top 125, the subcommittee will apply the NCAA selection criteria to determine which student-athlete is the automatic qualifier from those conferences.

SINGLES

Seeds 1 - 8

1.Benjamin Kohlloeffel - UCLA

2.John Isner - Georgia

3.Luigi D’Agord - Miami (Florida)

4.Lars Poerschke - Baylor

5.Ludovic Walter - Duke

6.Conor Niland - California

7.Arnau Brugues - Tulsa

8.Travis Helgeson - Texas

Seeds 9 - 16, listed alphabetically by last name

Matt Bruch - Stanford

Daniel Byrnes - Oklahoma State

Ryler DeHeart - Illinois

Somdev Devvarman - Virginia

Scott Doerner - Pepperdine

Arnaud Lecloerec - Virginia Commonwealth

Raian Luchici - North Carolina

Jerry Makowski - Texas A&M

Automatic Qualifiers (listed by conference)

Atlantic Sun - Marcus Echtler - Stetson

Atlantic 10 - Roy Sichel - Charlotte

Big East - Stephen Bass - Notre Dame

Big West - Arnar Sigurdsson - Pacific

Big Sky - Federico Ueltschi - Montana State

Big South - Martin Sayer - Radford

Ivy - Brandon Wai - Yale

MAC - Matt Baccarani - Ball State

Mountain West - Andrei Mlendea - TCU

Southland - Raul Morant-Rivas - Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

Sun Belt - Andreas Siljestrom - Middle Tennessee

WAC - Luke Shields - Boise State

At-Large Singles Players

(listed alphabetically by last name)

Ytai Abougzir - Florida State

Kevin Anderson - Illinois

Callum Beale - Texas

Dirk Britzen - South Florida

Jakub Cech - Fresno State

Eric Claesson - Mississippi

KC Corkery - Stanford

Luis Flores - Georgia

Roger Gubser - Texas

Alex Hume - Kentucky

Michal Kokta - Baylor

Bryan Koniecko - Ohio State

Matko Maravic - Michigan

Roger Matalonga - Arizona

Eric Molnar - Colorado

Vladimir Obradovic - Florida

Peter Oredsson - SMU

Greg Ouellette - Florida

Sheeva Parbhu - Notre Dame

Todd Paul - Wake Forest

Ryan Preston - Vanderbilt

Adrian Prpic - Texas Tech

Arvid Puranen - Virginia Tech

Slavko Radman - Louisville

Clement Reix - Clemson

Pedro Rico - Pepperdine

Rylan Rizza - Virginia

Robert Searle - Rice

Ken Skupski - LSU

Alex Skrypko - SMU

Alex Slovic - Washington

Harel Srugo - Old Dominion

Jonathan Stokke - Duke

Erling Tveit - Mississippi

Pierrick Ysern - San Diego

Adrians Zguns - Arkansas

Alternates

1. D.J. Geatz - Minnesota

2. Strahinja Bobusic - Georgia

3. Joseph Jung - Alabama

4. Frederico Soriano - Tulsa

5. Treat Huey - Virginia

6. Matic Omerzel - Georgia

7. Matija Zgaga - Baylor

8. James Wan - Stanford

Colorado University Athletics

Molnar Earns NCAA Tournament Singles Bid; First CU Player Since 1996