CIPULLI MAKES SOME NOISE AT THE NCAA divISION I TOURNAMENT

November 8, 2004

BOLIVAR, MO. ... Competing with the "Big Dogs" of NCAA Division I men's tennis, senior Dante Cipulli held his own in the ITA Singles Tournament. He finished the tournament with a 2-2 record.

In the first round, Cipulli drew the #4 seed in Pepperdine's Pedro Rico. He took Pepperdine's best to three games but fell 6-7, 6-2, 6-2. After the first round loss, Cipulli bounced back with two straight wins over players from the Harvard University and the University of Arkansas.

Cipulli first defeated Arkansas' Rohan Gaijar 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 and then picked up a win over Harvard's Jonathan Chu, 6-3, 7-6. He then lost in the consolation quarter-finals to Baylor's Lars Poerschke 6-4, 6-4. Poerschke was a member of the NCAA Division I National Championship team from Baylor last spring.

If Cipulli were playing in NCAA Division I right now, he would be ranked top 17-25 singles tennnis players.

ITA NCAA Division Singles Tennis Championships (UMichigan)
P.Rico (Pepperdine) def. D.Cipulli (SBU), 6-7, 6-2, 6-2

Consolation

D.Cipulli (SBU) def. R.Gaijar (Arkansas), 6-4, 6-7, 6-2

D.Cipulli def. J.Chu (Harvard), 6-3, 7-6

L.Poerschke (Baylor) def. D.Cipulli (SBU), 6-4, 6-4

ITA Website for Tournament: www.itatennis.com/04IndoorBreak.htm

ITA Website Pairings (pdf format): www.itatennis.com/04IndoorsMENdraw.pdf

Listen to the semi-finals and finals at: www.radiotennis.com