June 13, 2003

USF men's tennis established another milestone following a successful 2002-2003 season. The ITA regional rankings were posted this past week and for the first time in more than two decades the Dons men's tennis team received a regional ranking. This is the first for the Dons program ever since the ranking system has been computerized nationwide.

As a team, San Francisco ranked 15th in the West section. In men's tennis (different for women) the West region is considered to be the strongest section in the nation including the Pac-Ten and perennial powers from the WAC, Big West and West Coast Conference. Also for the first time USF's top player Joachim Lien was regionally ranked in singles at #24. This is again a first ever for the current ranking system.

Head coach Peter Bartlett, the 2003 WCC Coach of the Year after guiding USF to a third place showing, is pleased about the progress his program has made.

"We were very fortunate to put together a group of committed players and coaches. I look forward to continuing this success next season in what will again be a challenging conference race. I look forward to another outstanding season," Bartlett stated.

ITA West Region Team Rankings: 1. Stanford 2. UCLA 3. California 4. Washington 5. USC 6. Pepperdine 7. Fresno State 8. Arizona State 9. Arizona 10. San Diego 11. Oregon 12. UC Santa Barbara 13. Univ. of the Pacific (California) 14. UC Irvine 15. USF

ITA West Region Individual Singles Rankings: 1. Tobias Clemens, UCLA 2. Alex Vlaski, Washington 3. David Martin, Stanford 4. Marcin Matkowski, UCLA 5. Matt Hanlin, Washington 6. KC Corkery, Stanford 7.Calle Hansen, Pepperdine 8. Prakash Amritraj, USC 9. Conor Niland, California 10. Sam Warburg, Stanford 11. Chris Lam, UCLA 12. Manuel Kost, Oregon 13. Robert Kowalczyk, California 14.Scott Lipsky, Stanford 15. Erfan Djahangiri, UCLA 16.Pierrick Ysern, San Diego 17.Rodrigo Grilli, UCLA 18.Pim Van Mele, Arizona State 19. Carlos Palencia, UC Santa Barbara 20. James Pade, Stanford 21. Balazs Veress, California 22. Oded Teig, Oregon 23. Tigran Martyrosian, Loyola Marymount 24. Joaquin Lien, San Francisco 25. Diego Acuna, Pepperdine 26. Hector Almada, Fresno St. 27. Johan Berg, USC 28. Robert Blair, San Diego 29. Amar Sigurdsson, Univ. of the Pacific 30. Jason Pongsrikul, San Diego