Four members of the men's and women's tennis teams faced other top collegiate tennis players at the Rolex Intercollegiate Tennis Championships in Dallas, Texas, this past weekend.
Senior Rob Chess and junior Sven Koehler both participated in singles competition for the men's team, while Chess joined senior Peter Ayers in doubles competition at the Rolex. Freshman Vanessa Webb was the lone representative for the women's team at the tournament.
Chess, ranked No. 15 nationally, advanced to the quarterfinals of the singles draw, winning two tough matches along the way. The Blue Devil squared off against 27th-ranked Reed Cordish from Princeton in the opening round and outlasted Cordish, 6-3, 7-6.
Chess faced a strong foe in the round of 16, but he was able to claim a victory over second-seeded and second-ranked Paul Robinson from Texas Christian University. Chess downed Robinson 6-7, 6-1, 6-4.
"[Chess] should have beaten [Robinson] a lot worse than he did," assistant men's coach Dave Hagymas said. "It was a three-setter, but it should have been 6-4, 6-1. Rob was definitely in control of the whole match, from the beginning to the end."
The senior could not continue his success in the tournament past the quarterfinals, however, as Chess feel to fifth-seeded and sixth-ranked Mattias Rohlin from Texas Tech in the round of eight. Rohlin defeated Chess in a close two-setter, 6-4, 7-5.
"I was very happy with his results," Hagymas said. "[Chess] did extremely well."
The 10th-ranked doubles team of Chess and Ayers dropped its first match of the doubles competition, falling to 13th-ranked Ernesto Diaz and Albin Polonyi from Boise State, 6-4, 6-4.
"[The team from Boise State] was just pretty much flawless," Hagymas said.
Koehler was not able to pick up any victories in the Rolex, due to the caliber of his competition. He dropped his opening round match to Southern Cal's Cecil Mamiit, who is ranked 10th nationally. Koehler also fell in his consolation match to Tennessee's 11th-ranked Pablo Montana.
"For Sven it was a great learning experience," Hagymas said. "It was his first national tournament, and it was just a good experience for him-that level of play... I think in the long run it'll do him a lot of good."
Even though Webb lost in the opening round of the women's main draw to Notre Dame's Jennifer Hall, she was able to rebound to claim the consolation championship. Webb captured four matches in the consolation round, outlasting foes from Wisconsin, Syracuse and two highly-ranked players from Stanford.
"I think on the weekend as a whole, she did a great job of bouncing back after that loss and proving something to herself," assistant women's coach Jamie Ashworth said. "In that tournament, the consolation in the back draw is just as important as the main draw and she ended up playing two girls that are top five in the country from Stanford. She had to be up to play them, and she was."
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