May 25, 2005
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The Illinois' men's tennis team opened singles competition Wednesday at the NCAA individual championships in College Station, Tex. Junior Ryler DeHeart won a three-set match; freshman Kevin Anderson advanced after a straight set victory; and sophomore GD Jones was defeated in straight sets.
"Overall, I'm pleased with today's play" head coach Craig Tiley said. "I'm pleased that Kevin and Ryler came out on top. Kevin played some pretty solid tennis today; Ryler played a little better than he has recently to get the win, but tomorrow he'll really need to step up his game. Of course, GD is disappointed in his showing. He really could've played better than he did."
DeHeart, ranked 8th nationally and seeded seventh in the tournament, used three sets to dispatch 54th ranked Mark Dietrich, Tennessee 6-3, 2-6, 6-2. With the victory, DeHeart improves his record to 41-9, breaking Gavin Sontag's school record for single-season all-time singles victories.
Tiley continued, "I'm very excited about Ryler becoming the new singles record holder (at Illinois). While it's a great achievement for him, he is still focused on playing more solid tennis for the rest of the tournament."
Anderson, ranked 51st nationally, dominated his match against 63rd ranked Marek Velicka of Oklahoma, losing just three games, winning 6-1, 6-2. The freshman from South Africa improves his record to 21-4 on the season and with a win tomorrow, he'll earn All-America honors.
Jones, who came in as the country's 23rd ranked player, fell 6-4, 7-5 to No. 46 Luke Shields of Boise State.
Anderson will face 38th ranked Gabor Zoltan of Auburn who was a 7-6 (6), 6-3 winner over 15th ranked K.C. Corkery of Stanford while DeHeart will square off against 17th ranked Arnaud Lecloerec of VCU who defeated Denver's Adam Holmstrom 6-2, 7-6 (3). DeHeart defeated Lecloerec 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (5) in the quarterfinals of the ITA National Indoor Tournament last November.
Jones and DeHeart, who make up the nation's 10th ranked doubles team, will begin their title quest Thursday facing Alberto Francis and Krzysztof Kwinta of UCLA. Times have yet to be determined, but they will not begin before 1 p.m. CDT on Thursday.
For more information on the NCAA individual singles and doubles tournaments please visit: http://aggieathletics.com/specialsites/ncaatennis2005/index.php
