Gustavus Adolphus College is set to host the seventh annual Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Division III Indoor Championship at the Swanson Tennis Center in St. Peter, Minnesota. Eight of the top 25 teams in Division III tennis will play off to determine the 2007 ITA National Indoor Champion. Three-time and defending champion Gustavus will defend its title. The Golden Gusties will be the #2 seed entering the tournament. 2004 and 2005 ITA Indoor champion Emory University will be the #1 seed.
Joining Emory (#1 in the current ITA Div. III poll) and Gustavus (#4), will be the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges of Claremont, California (#2), DePauw University of Greencastle, Indiana (#6), University of California, Santa Cruz (#7), University of Mary Washington of Fredericksburg, Virginia (#11), Trinity University of San Antonio, Texas (#12), and Swarthmore College of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania (#23). Swarthmore is appearing in the ITA Indoor Championships for the first time.
The tournament will begin on Friday morning with #1 Emory facing #8 Mary Washington and #4 UC-Santa Cruze playing #5 Trinity (Texas) at 11:30 am. In the afternoon, #2 Gustavus will battle #7 Swarthmore and #3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps will play #6 DePauw. 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 five of the top 10 ranked singles players. Some of the top ranked players include Michael Starr of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Michael Goodwin of Emory, John James of Mary Washington, Evan Webeler of DePauw, and Jesse Brauer of Gustavus.
In doubles play, five of the top 10 tandems in the country and part of another will be present including William Ellison and David Oehm of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Scott Swanson and Evan Webeler of DePauw, Michael Goodwin and Michael Kaufman of Emory, Brian Pybas and Marc Vartabedian of UC-Santa Cruz, and Guillaume Shils and Lawrence Wang of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
This will be the fifth 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.