Trinity Men's Tennis Makes Third Straight Trip to NCAA Tourney Trinity College

HARTFORD, Conn., May 9 -- The Trinity College men’s tennis team, which has a 13-4 record and finished second at the New England Small College Athletic Conference(NESCAC) Championships, will be the No. 2 seed at the NCAA Division III Northeast Sub-Regional Championships this weekend at the Massachusetts Institiute of Technology.

Trinity, which is ranked No. 2 in the East and No. 11 in the nation, will face No. 3-seeded Bates on Saturday, May 12 at 10 a.m. The Bantams, coached by Paul Assaiante, are making their third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament. No.1 MIT will play No. 4 Rochester at 2 p.m. in the other first round match. The winners will face off on Sunday, May 13 at 1 p.m.

Senior co-captain, NESCAC Player of the Year, and four-time All-American Rostyslav Orach (Brooklyn, N.Y.) posted a 16-0 dual record and a 26-1 overall mark this season at the No. 1 singles position. Orach, whose only loss came in the Rolex/Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Championships in the fall, also recorded a 14-1 dual record and a 24-2 overall mark at No. 1 doubles with freshman Richard Lawrence (Toronto, Ontario). Orach has the best career singles record in College-history at 70-10. He has won the NESCAC No. 1 singles flight title twice and the No. 2 singles title once.

Lawrence has enjoyed an outstanding rookie season, posting a 14-1 singles mark in dual matches and a 20-3 record overall. He and Orach won the Rolex/ITA Regional Doubles Championship, and Lawrence was named the NESCAC Rookie of the Year.

Fellow freshmen Csaba Godry (Budapest, Hungary) and Scott Levy (Waban, Mass.) have stepped in at No. 3 and No. 4 singles, respectively, with each posting a 12-7 record. Levy also went 14-7 at No. 2 doubles with sophomore Muammar Khan (Dhaka, Bangladesh). Khan was 14-4 at No. 5 singles as well.

Bates, under 2000-01 NESCAC Coach of the Year Tony Gastonguay, is 9-3 and finished third at the NESCAC Championships this spring. Sophomore No. 1 singles player Alex MacDonald (Bridgewater, Conn.) is 19-7 for the Bobcats, who are ranked No. 5 in the East and No. 19 in the nation. Trinity edged Bates, 4-3, in Hartford during the regular season.

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