Gustavus Adolphus College is set to host the sixth annual Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Division III Indoor Championship at the Swanson Tennis Center in St. Peter, Minnesota. Eight of the top 15 teams in Division III tennis will play off to determine the 2006 ITA National Indoor Champion. Two-time defending champion Emory University will return to defend its title. The Eagles will be the #2 seed entering the tournament. 2005 ITA Indoor runner-up UC-Santa Cruz is the #1 seed. Two-time ITA Indoor champion Gustavus (2002, 2003) is the #3 seed.
Joining UC-Santa Cruz (#1 in the current ITA Div. III poll), Emory (#3) and Gustavus (#4), will be the Trinity University of San Antonio, Texas (#6), Kalamazoo College of Kalamazoo, Michigan (#7), Pacific Lutheran University of Tacoma, Washington (#10), DePauw University of Greencastle, Indiana (#13) and California Lutheran University of Thousand Oaks, California (#15). Kalamazoo, Pacific Lutheran, DePauw, and California Lutheran are all appearing in the ITA Indoor Championships for the first time.
The tournament will begin on Friday morning with #1 UC-Santa Cruz facing #7 DePauw and #4 Trinity playing #5 Kalamazoo at 11:30 am. In the afternoon, #2 Emory will battle #8 California Lutheran and #3 Gustavus will play #6 Pacific Lutheran. The afternoon matches are slated to begin at 5:00 pm. Saturday’s schedule has the losers of Friday’s matches playing in consolation matches beginning at 8:30 am, while the winners will play in semifinal matches beginning at 2:00 pm. The third place and championship matches will begin at 9:00 am on Sunday morning.
Many of the top players in Division III will be taking part in the tournament including nine of the top 20 ranked singles players. Some of the top ranked players include two-time defending NCAA singles champion Matt Seeberger of UC-Santa Cruz, Loren Collins of Gustavus, Patrick Redmond of Emory, Julian Seelan of Kalamazoo, Yoji Masuoka of Emory, John Matthew of Trinity, Evan Webeler of DePauw, Stuart Row of Trinity, and Adam Morgan of Gustavus.
In doubles play, six of the top 20 tandems in the country will be present including Adam Morgan and Brett Morse-Karzen of Gustavus, Michael Goodwin and Mark Boren of Emory, Julian Seelan and Tim Hubbard of Kalamazoo, Ricky Butenko and Matt Larimore of Pacific Lutheran, Matt Seeberger and Shane Templeman of UC-Santa Cruz and Roy and Andy Bryan of Gustavus.
This will be the fourth consecutive year that the ITA Division III Indoor Championships have been held at the Swanson Tennis Center on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota.