April 23, 2007
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THIS WEEK — The University of Iowa men’s tennis team (8-12, 1-9) will travel to West Lafayette, IN, to compete in the Big Ten Championships. The Hawkeyes will face Indiana Thursday in the first round of competition. Play is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. (CDT).
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION — Competition will be held at the Schwartz Tennis Center on the Purdue University campus. First round play will be held Thursday, followed by the quarterfinals Friday, semifinals Saturday and final matches Sunday. Regular season champion Ohio State is the #1 seed, while Iowa is the #10 seed.
SCOUTING INDIANA — Indiana (14-11, 4-6) is ranked 64th in the latest polls. The Hoosiers are led by junior Thomas Richter (13-8). He was named Big Ten Player of the Week April 11 after defeating opponents from Northwestern and Wisconsin in singles and doubles competition. Iowa was defeated by Indiana earlier in the season, 6-1. In that match, freshman Tommy McGeorge was the only Hawkeye to secure a singles win.
LAST TIME OUT — The Hawkeyes captured their first Big Ten victory of the season by defeating Purude, 5-2. Iowa also lost to No. 11 Illinois, 6-1. The doubles teams of freshman Walker Grimes and sophomore Greg Holm, and freshman Reinoud Haal and sophomore Christian Bierich were 1-1 on the weekend. Haal, Bierich, McGeorge and Patrick Dwyer, and juniors J.P. Ritchie and Bart van Monsjou were 1-1 in singles competition.
HEAD COACH Steve Houghton — Steve Houghton, the dean of Big Ten tennis coaches, is in his 26th season as head coach of the Hawkeyes. Houghton has a career record of 285-298 (.489). His best season came in 1984 when Iowa won a school record 21 matches and two Hawkeyes earned all-Big Ten honors. Four of Houghton’s athletes have also been selected Big Ten Sportsman of the Year. He became the winningest coach in Iowa tennis history in 1992 and is a member of the Iowa Tennis Hall of Fame. While playing at Iowa, Houghton had a career winning percentage of .727 (40-15), the second best in Iowa History.
QUOTING COACH HOUGHTON — “I feel like we’ve been playing some of our best tennis of the season recently. I am expecting a good performance at the Big Ten Tournament.”