Nov. 8, 2002

The USF Dons have taken the court once again at the 46th Annual Intercollegiate Championships held at the L.A. Racquet Club in Southern California. Considered to be one of the oldest and most competitive collegiate tennis tournaments on the West Coast, USF makes their first appearance in the prestigious event typically reserved for elite Southern California programs like USC, UCLA, Pepperdine and San Diego.

Northern California schools in the 2002 field include the University of San Francisco, UOP, Fresno State, and the University of Portland. The University of San Francisco has four players competing in the singles competition and will field two doubles teams.

Competing for USF are Jorgen Arnesen, Joachim Lien, Pablo Pires De Almeida, and Mason Fuller. Each earned a spot into the main draw by winning all their matches in the pre-qualifying tournament and were the only team to do so. Currently, in the main draw only UCLA has more players that qualified for main draw play than the Dons.

Head coach Peter Bartlett is thrilled with the way his team has played in the highly competitive tournament.

"For our guys it's a good way to end the ranking period. It was basically UCLA and us dominating the draw and that's a tremendous sign for us as we continue turn some heads," Bartlett stated.

In the main draw in the Round of 16, Pires De Almeida advanced after defeating UCLA's Chris Surapol 7-6, 6-2 and Arnesen dispatched Santa Barbara's Mike Frick 6-3, 6-4. Lien and Fuller had their matches delayed by rain and will continue tomorrow.

Competition on Friday, November 8 was also postponed due to inclement weather. Matches will resume on Saturday, weather permitting.