May 8, 2003
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The 28th-ranked Wake Forest men's tennis earned an at-large bid to the 64-team NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship. The Demon Deacons (13-8) will face No. 46 Brown (18-3) at 1:00 p.m. in the first round Saturday, May 10 at Duke University's Ambler Tennis Stadium in Durham, N.C., a regional four-team site hosted by ninth-ranked and eighth-seeded Duke.
It will be a rematch for Brown and Wake Forest, as the then 55th-ranked Bears upset the then-ranked No. 17 Demon Deacons, 4-3, Feb. 22 in Providence, R.I. That evened the all-time series between the two schools at 1-1, following Wake Forest's 7-0 shutout over Brown on March 26, 2002 in Winston-Salem.
The winner will advance to the second round, Sunday, May 11 at 1:30 p.m., to meet the winner of the Duke versus High Point first round matchup. The winner of Sunday's match will advance to the Round of 16 in Athens, Ga. Wake Forest is 16-0 all time against the Panthers and 8-33 versus the Blue Devils. The last time the Demon Deacons beat Duke was in 1981.
This makes the fourth appearance in the NCAA Tournament for the Wake Forest men's tennis team and the third straight trip. The Demon Deacons have never advanced past the first round.
Six ACC teams made the NCAA Tournament field. Wake Forest joins Duke, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech and North Carolina in the big dance.
David Loewenthal, Wake Forest's top player on the men's tennis team, was selected as the No. 2 alternate for the NCAA Singles Championship May 19-24 in Athens, Ga. Loewenthal, a junior from Franklin Lakes, N.J., will compete in the 64-player event if more than one participant drops out or is unable to play.
Loewenthal is ranked 56th in the latest Omni Hotels/ITA Singles Rankings and has an overall singles record of 31-16 this year. Participating in the NCAA Singles Championship last year, Loewenthal advanced to the second round before falling in three sets to the top-seeded, number one ranked and eventual national champion, Matias Boeker from Georgia.
The Demon Deacons finished fourth in the ACC with a 5-3 conference record. It marks first time in 26 years that Wake Forest has put together three consecutive top four finishes in the league. Earning the four seed at the ACC Championships last weekend in Raleigh, N.C., the Deacs blanked No. 37 Virginia 4-0 in the quarterfinals and fell 4-0 to top-seeded, ninth-ranked and eventual ACC Champions Duke in the semifinals.
The conference awards were handed out at the ACC Tennis Championships banquet April 11 and two Demon Deacons picked up All-ACC honors. David Bere and David Loewenthal were named all-conference for the second year in a row. Berč was an automatic selection after winning the No. 3 singles flight with a 5-0 record against league foes and Loewenthal, who went 3-4 at No. 1 singles in conference play and 4-3 at No. 1 doubles, was picked by the ACC coaches.
Bere, a senior from Midland, Mich., shattered the 15-year-old school record for career singles victories earlier this season. He is the all-time winningest singles player in school history with 105 career wins. Bere leads the team with 34 this year.
Trent Brendon, a senior from Victorville, Calif., broke the school record for career doubles victories against South Carolina on April 9. He is the all-time winningest doubles player in school history with 91 career doubles wins and is second on the school's career singles victories list with 99 career singles wins. Brendon is tied with Loewenthal for a team-leading 25 doubles victories this season. Leading the squad with a 7-1 ACC singles record, Brendon also leads the team with 14 dual singles victories. He is tied with Loewenthal for second on the club with 31 overall singles wins on the year, which places them both in a tie for third on the school's season singles victories list. Brendon and Loewenthal were nationally ranked in doubles for most of the season.
Mike Murray, a senior from Clearwater, Fla., owns 28 singles wins on the year and 21 doubles victories. He went 6-2 in ACC singles play, including a 4-0 mark at No. 5. Murray is ranked third on both the school's career singles and doubles victories lists.
Brett Ross, a freshman from Roswell, Ga., has made an immediate impact for the Deacons this year. Tallying 29 singles victories on the season and 21 doubles wins, Ross led the team with a 6-2 ACC doubles mark.
Despite a slow start this fall, sophomore Derrick Spice has put together 19 wins in both singles and doubles this year. He is third on the squad with 12 dual singles victories.
Andrew Simpson and Brian Murphy both have played integral parts in the Demon Deacons' success this season. Murphy, a senior from Thomasville, N.C., stepped up to fill in at No. 6 singles March 30 at Georgia Tech when Wake Forest's top player David Loewenthal was out with an sprained ankle. Murphy, who has only seen action in three dual matches during his four years at Wake Forest, sealed the upset 4-3 victory over the 14th-ranked Yellow Jackets with a straight set singles win. Simpson, a junior from Raleigh, N.C., started the season playing No. 3 doubles before suffering a broken bone in his foot three matches into the season and forcing him to miss the next two months of action. He returned for the last week of the regular season and has gone 3-1 at No. 3 doubles with Loewenthal, including a 2-0 mark at the ACC Championships.
