University of Minnesota senior men's tennis player Avery Ticer (Amarillo, Texas) has earned one of 64 bids for the 2005 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Singles Championships. Ticer will make his first career appearance in the national singles tournament. He is one of six players from the Big Ten to earn a berth in the 2005 Singles Championships.
The singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 25-30 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas, following the conclusion of the team championship (May 21-24). Each region receives automatic entry for four singles players and two doubles teams.
Ticer, a 2005 All-Big Ten selection, is currently ranked 31st in the nation. Minnesota's first-ever three-year captain, Ticer has played all of his matches at No. 1 singles, compiling a 14-4 dual record and a 6-1 mark in Big Ten matches. A native of Amarillo, Texas, Ticer began the season with a semifinal appearance at the 2004 Big Ten Singles Championship before storming out of the gates in the dual season to vault up the national rankings. Ranked 105th in singles to start the year, Ticer rose to as high as No. 25 after posting a 7-4 record vs. ranked opponents with wins over Nos. 10, 25, 34, 46, 80 and 81.
Last season at the NCAA Singles Championships, Minnesota's Aleksey Zharinov lost in the first round at the 2004 NCAA Singles Championships in Tulsa, Okla. Zharinov, then ranked 64th in the nation, lost 6-1, 6-2 to No. 41 Andreas Lauland of Virginia Tech. Zharinov was making his second consecutive appearance in the national singles tournament.
The top 16 seeds for the 2005 NCAA Singles Championships and the competitors from the Big Ten are listed below.
Seeds 1-8
1. Benedikt Dorsch, Baylor
2. Sam Warburg, Stanford
3. Jesse Witten, Kentucky
4. Catalin Gard, Mississippi
5. Ludovic Walter, Duke
6. Luben Pampoulov, UCLA
7. Ryler DeHeart, Illinois
8. Alex Vlaski, Washington
Seeds 9-16, listed alphabetically by last name
Franticek Babej, South Alabama
Benjamin Becker, Baylor
KC Corkery, Stanford
Benjamin Kohlloeffel, UCLA
Jerry Makowski, Texas A & M
Connor Niland, California
Sven Swinnen, Oregon
Pierrick Ysern, San Diego
Big Ten Competitors
Automatic Qualifiers
Ryler DeHeart, Illinois
GD Jones, Illinois
Avery Ticer, Minnesota
Devin Mullings, Ohio State
Mark Barry, Penn State
At-Large
Kevin Anderson, Illinois
