The NCAA News - News and Features

May 4, 1998

Division II Men's Tennis

Unbeaten Lander shoots for sixth

Event: 1998 NCAA Division II Men's Tennis Championship.

Overview: Defending champion Lander is 16-0 in team play for the season. Lander is led by singles players Frank Pothoff (16-7), Yohn Gruninger (10-2), Val Techerda (16-6), Martin Kohm (11-4), Jacobs Vensson (20-2) and Eric Fryberg (18-3). The No. 1 doubles team for Lander is Pothoff and Laio Teixeria. Lander will be seeking its sixth consecutive team title .... Barry, ranked second in Division II, will contend for the crown behind No. 1 singles player and two-time all-American Herbert Bende, No. 2 junior Iphton Louis and No. 3 Lior Chalbianski. This will be Barry's fourth straight appearance in the championships in search of a third straight appearance in the finals .... Florida Southern is seeking its first title behind the efforts of Alberto Bonfil, Patrick Ney, Ameya Chandarvarkar and Volker Bargenda. Bonfil and Chandarvarkar combine to form Florida Southern's No. 1 doubles team, followed by Bargenda and Ney in the No. 2 slot .... Also looking to keep Lander from another championship will be Lynn and Armstrong Atlantic. Lynn's Fabio Massetta, ranked second in Division II singles, will lead the way for the Fighting Knights. Massetta pairs with Obren Milutinovic in doubles. Armstrong Atlantic places its championship hopes on singles players Stefan Wirtz and Christian Witt. The duo also combines to form a top-ranked doubles tandem.

Field: Four teams will compete at each of 10 regional tournaments. The 10 regional winners will advance to the national championship, joining six teams (three from the South region, two from the East region and one from the Midwest region) that will be selected in advance and will not compete in regionals.

Dates and sites: Regional tournaments will be May 8-10. The championship will be May 15-18 at Springfield, Missouri. Southwest Baptist will serve as host.

Information/results: The NCAA Fax-on-Demand System will have regional and championship results. The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 1535 for dates and sites, 1536 for bracket/schedule, 5229 for qualifiers, 5230 for round of 16 results, 5231 for quarterfinal results, 5232 for semifinal results and 5233 for third-place and final-match results. Regional and championships results also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Championships results will be published in the May 18 (regional tournaments) and May 25 (finals) issues of The NCAA News.