Sept. 18, 2002

The Illinois men's tennis team opens its fall season of competition this weekend. For the second year in a row, the Illini begin their fall season at the Napa Valley Invitational, which will take place at the Meadowood Tennis Club in Napa Valley, Calif. It is a flighted tournament--six flights for singles and three for doubles. This is an individual tournament and no team scores will be taken.

The Illini, who finished last season the fourth-ranked team in the country, are joined by 2002 national runner-up Georgia, California, (which ended last season ranked No. 13) and Arizona.

"This trip affords us a great opportunity to play at a top-level event early in the year," said 10th-year Illini Head Coach Craig Tiley. "We'll see some very good opponents at this tournament. The main thing about this weekend is determining where we are, and to see how everyone's playing and what aspects they need to work on."

Nine players will be traveling for the Orange and Blue. The Ilini are led by juniors Amer Delic, ranked 6th nationally, Brian Wilson, (25th), Phil Stolt, (44th), and Micheal Calkins (52nd). Sophomores that will be making the trip are No. 88 Chris Martin, as well as Conner Murnighan, and Evan Zeder. Two UI freshmen will be making their debuts this weekend: Pramod Dabir and Ryler DeHeart. Tiley has yet to determine which players will compete in which flights; the doubles combinations are also undetermined.

The team left Wednesday afternoon, even though its first official practice for the year isn't until Thursday.

"It's a little unusual that we'll be starting the fall season with an event before our first official practice," continued Tiley. "Since our players will be competing as individuals it is not that critical."