March 15, 2005

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- The #75 Old Dominion men's tennis team fell to #22 Harvard in the consolation bracket of the National Blue/Gray Touranment to fall to 5-9 overall.

The Monarchs captured victories at the top two singles spots. Senior Izak van der Merwe (Kempton Park, South Africa) defeated #31 Jonathan Chu, 6-3, 7-6 (3), for his second straight win over the Crimson's top player at the top position. Van der Merwe captured a 3-6,6-3,6-4 victory in the first meeting back on March 5th in a 1-6 loss to Harvard.

Old Dominion's other winner came from Henrique Cancado (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) who earned a 6-1, 7-5 win over Ashwin Kumar at No. 2 singles.

The Monarchs return to action against American and Withrop this weekend before hosting the Elite 8 Collegiate Invitationsl at Owl Creek.

Singles: No. 1 #25 Izak van der Merwe (ODU) def. #31 Jonathan Chu (Harvard) 6-3,7-6(3)
No. 2 Henrique Cancado (ODU) def. Ashwin Kumar (Harvard) 6-1,7-5
No. 3 Dan Nguyen (Harvard) def. Eidy Igarashi (ODU) 4-6,6-3,6-2
No. 4 Shantanu Dhaka (Harvard) v. Adriano Mello (ODU) Unfinished 6-4,1-6,6-6
No. 5 Brandon Chiu (Harvard) def. Rodrigo Souza 6-3,4-6,6-4
No. 6 Gideon Valkin (Harvard) def. Juliano Cirimbelli 6-3,1-6,6-1

Doubles

No. 1 Jonathan Chu/Brandon Chiu (Harvard) def. Izak van der Merwe/Rodrigo Souza (ODU) 8-4
No. 2 Shantanu Dhaka/Ashwin Kumar (Harvard) v. Juliano Cirimbelli/Eidy Igarashi 7-6
No. 3 Jason Beren/Jordan Bohnen (Harvard) def. Nate Grover/Henrique Cancado 8-5