March 23, 2005
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The Old Dominion tennis teams will host the "Elite 8" Collegiate Invitational this weekend at Owl Creek in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Brackets are currently listed at and will be updated at www.hamptonroadstennis.com
Schools participating include:
MEN:
Old Dominion, Morgan State, Longwood, Queen, UNC-Wilmington, Hofstra, Howard
WOMEN:
Old Dominion, Morgan State, Longwood, UNC-Wilmington, Alberta, St. John's, Hofstra, Howard.
The men's team enters the tournament with a 6-10 mark having competed against nine nationally ranked opponents thus far. Leading the way is the Monarchs' top singles player, #29 Izak van der Merwe (Kempton Park, South Africa) who was recently named the CAA Player of the Week. Van der Merwe currently owns 19-9 overall mark and 10-5 record in dual meet action. Van der Merwe and sophomore Nate Grover (Suffolk, Va.) have teamed together to ranked 60th in the most recent doubles poll. The two have combined for a 9-8 overall record. Another Monarch to watch is Herique Cancado (Belo Horizonte, Brazil), who owns a 16-10 overall mark which includes a 9-5 record in dual meets.
On the women's side, the Lady Monarchs enter competition with an 8-8 mark, having faced six nationally ranked foes. Old Dominion's top singles player, junior Kerstin Endlich (Neustadt, Germany), comes into the tournament with a 10-10 overall mark, followed by freshman Barbara Costa (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) at 17-8 overall, sophomore Barbara Kerner (Herxheim, Germany) at 16-8 overall, and sophomore Fernanda Luiz (Nova Lima, Brazil) at 13-11 overall. In doubles, the ODU women's team has been paced by the duo of Endlich and Luiz, who own a 10-9 overall mark at No. 1 doubles. Additionally, Costa and Kerner have teamed up as late playing to a 4-0 mark.