Gustavus Adolphus College is set to host the eighth 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 2008 ITA National Indoor Champion. The 2001 ITA Indoor and defending champion University of California, Santa Cruz will defend its title as the #1 seed. The Golden Gusties will be the #3 seed entering the tournament.
Joining UC-Santa Cruz (#1 in the current ITA Div. III poll) and Gustavus (#5), will be Emory University of Atlanta, Georgia (#2), DePauw University of Greencastle, Indiana (#6), Washington University of St. Louis, Missouri (#7), Trinity University of San Antonio, Texas (#9), Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore, Maryland (#11), and University of Mary Washington of Fredericksburg, Virginia (#12). Johns Hopkins is appearing in the ITA Indoor Championships for the first time.
The tournament will begin on Friday morning with #1 UC-Santa Cruz facing #8 Mary Washington and #2 Emory will battle #7 Johns Hopkins at 11:30 am. In the afternoon, #3 Gustavus will play #6 Trinity (Texas) and #4 DePauw faces #5 Washington University (Missouri). 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. Consolation finals are slated to start at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. 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 six of the top 10 ranked singles players. Some of the top ranked players include John Watts of Washington University (Missouri), Mark Boren of Emory, Randy Loden of Mary Washington, Jared Kamel of UC-Santa Cruz, Oliver Gaines of Trinity (TX), and Andy Bryan of Gustavus.
In doubles play, five of the top 10 tandems in the country will be present including Charlie Cutler and Chris Hoeland of Washington University (Missouri), Andy Bryan and Charlie Paukert of Gustavus, Michael Goodwin and Oliver Lopp of Emory, Bobby Coconougher and Cory Kowal of Trinity (TX), and Scott Swanson and Kortney Keith of DePauw.
This will be the sixth 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.