2008 NCAA Division I Men's Championships

Tulsa Dates, Format & Sites: The first and second rounds were played at 16 campus sites May 9-11. The final 16 resumes May 16-20 at the University of Tulsa's Michael D. Case Tennis Center. The singles and doubles championships are May 21-26.


Official Website:Visit NCAAsports.com for the draws and latest scores and TulsaHurricane.com for coverage from the final team rounds and singles and doubles championships at Tulsa.


TV/Radio: TulsaHurricane.com will feature live scoring and streamline video for the final rounds. ESPNU and ESPN2 will broadcast the team final live on May 20 starting at 7 pm eastern. The Tennis Channel will broadcast the singles and doubles finals live on May 26 starting at 1 pm eastern.

Top Seeds: The following teams were selected as the top 16 seeds for this year's championships: No. 1 Virginia, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 Georgia, No. 5 Mississippi, No. 6 Southern California, No. 7 Texas, No. 8 Tennessee, No. 9 Baylor, No. 10 Florida, No. 11 Tulsa, No. 12 North Carolina, No. 13 Pepperdine, No. 14 Florida State, No. 15 Illinois and No. 16 Michigan. Coach Brian Boland's top-seeded Virginia squad enters with a 28-0 record. They are trying to become the sixth team since the NCAA added a team tournament to its championship in 1977 to record a perfect season, joining the following schools: Stanford (1978, '95 and '98), Illinois (2003) and Georgia (2007). All but Tulsa advanced through the opening two rounds to the final 16.

History/Trends: Six different teams have won the NCAA men's championships over the last six years...Stanford has won more NCAA team titles than anyone with 17. UCLA and Southern California follow with 16 apiece...The longest the Pac-10 has ever gone between a school winning the NCAA title was three years back in 1947-49...UCLA has reached the quarterfinals 19 straight years...This 124th men's tennis championships is the oldest in all collegiate sports dating back to 1883...2008 marks the 30th anniversary of Stanford freshman John McEnroe's NCAA singles title and 40th anniversary of USC senior Stan Smith's NCAA singles and doubles crowns...Virginia's Somdev Devvarman is looking to become the first player in 44 years to reach three straight NCAA singles finals and just the fourth in the last 50 years to win two straight titles.

2008 In Review: Virginia and senior captain Somdev Devvarman were the story of the 2008 regular season. UVA captured its second straight ACC title to go along with its ITA National Team Indoor title back in February. The Cavaliers have held the No. 1 ranking this entire season, while Devvarman has also held the No. 1 rankings in singles and doubles (with Treat Huey) the entire season...Ohio State spent the entire spring at No. 2 while winning its third straight Big Ten title and running its home win streak to 73 straight matches. OSU also advanced to its second straight ITA Team Indoor final, falling 4-1 to UVA...UCLA swept its season series against USC to capture its fifth straight Pac-10 crown...Mississippi beat Florida to capture its second SEC Tournament title last month. Earlier in the month Tennessee snapped Georgia's 40-match conference win streak...Baylor upset Texas in the Big 12 final to claim its seventh straight conference title...Tulsa enjoyed the most successful season in program history, spending much of the spring in the top 10...Virginia isn't the only team to register a perfect regular season - Drake turned in a 24-0 regular season record on its way to the Missouri Valley Conference title...Virginia Commonwealth coach Paul Kostin suffered a heart attach last fall, but fully recovered and again led both of his VCU men's and women's teams to the NCAAs, along the way winning his 800th career match...Despite a 2-10 start, Hawaii rebounded to win its six to capture its first WAC title and earn first trip to NCAA Championships with 8-10 record...Last fall UVA's Devvarman captured the singles and doubles titles at the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, he beat Illinois' Ryan Rowe in the singles and and teamed with Huey to beat USC's Robert Farah and Kaes Van't Hof in the doubles final...Georgia's Travis Helgeson handed Devvarman his only defeat of the season in the semifinals of the Polo Raph Lauren All-American Championships in October (in Tulsa) and went on to beat USC's Farah in the final. Devvarman and Huey also won the ITA All-American doubles title, beating Mississippi's Erling Tveit and Jonas Berg in the championship match. (See listing of this season's conference champions below)

In the ITA Rankings: The top 10 in the final ITA singles rankings of the season were (in order): Somdev Devvarman of Virgnia, Greg Ouellette of Florida, Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State, Travis Helgeson of Georgia, Daniel Vallverdu of Miami (Fla.), Robert Farah of Southern California, Alex Clayton of Stanford, Lars Poerschke of Baylor, Denes Lukacs of Baylor, and Dimitar Kutrovsky of Texas. The top five in doubles are: Virginia's Treat Huey and Somdev Devvarman, USC's Kaes Van't Hof and Robert Farah, Miami's Daniel Vallverdu and Carl Sundberg, Tennessee's Kaden Hensel and J.P. Smith and Mississippi's Erling Tveit and Jonas Berg.

2008 ITA National & Regional Award Winners: Regional winners will be announced May 9 and the national winners will be announced May 20. The complete ITA All-America Teams will be announced on 30. Lists

2007 Champs: Georgia topped Illinois in the 2007 team final in Athens to cap a perfect season and capture the program's fifth title. Coach Manuel Diaz's squad was led by senior John Isner who would go on to reach the NCAA singles final where he lost to UVA's Somdev Devvarman. Middle Tennessee's Marco Born and Andrea Siljestrom topped Illinois' defending champs Kevin Anderson and Ryan Rowe in the doubles final.

The Format: Although the NCAA Championships date all the way back to 1883, a team champion was not crowned until 1946. From 1946-1976 the team champion was determined by whichever school accumulated the most points through their players' advancement in the singles and doubles championships. A 16-team tournament was added in 1977 to determine the team champion and through the years it evolved into the current 64-team in 1999. The lowest seeded team to ever win the title (under the 64-team format) was No. 11 Southern California in 2002.

ITA Men's Hall of Fame Class of 2008: This year's ITA Hall of Fame cermonies will take place on May 21 in Tulsa. The Class of 2008 includes seven players, one coach and one contributor. The players slated for this class are: Steve Denton of Texas, Jim Pugh of UCLA, Donald Johnson of North Carolina, Patrick McEnroe of Stanford, Robbie Weiss of Pepperdine, Chris Woodruff of Tennessee and David DiLucia of Notre Dame. Also bein inducted are Coach Jerry Noyce of Minnesota and Tom Jacobs for his contributions while at the NCAA.

For ITA Coaches: The ITA Coaches Annex Meeting will take place Mon., May 19th, 9:00-10:00 pm, Case Athletic Complex, U. of Tulsa and Tues., May 20th, 9:00-11:30 a.m., Case Athletic Complex, U. of Tulsa

2008 Conference Champions:
America East – Binghamton
Atlantic 10 – Xavier
Atlantic Coast – Virginia
Atlantic Sun – East Tennessee State
Big East – Notre Dame
Big Sky – Eastern Washington
Big South – Radford
Big Ten – Ohio State
Big 12 – Baylor
Big West – UC Santa Barbara
Colonial – VCU
C-USA – Tulsa
Horizon – Cleveland State
Ivy – Harvard
Metro Atlantic – Marist
MAC – Western Michigan
Mid-Eastern – South Carolina State
Missouri Valley – Drake
Mountain West – TCU
Northeast – Fairleigh Dickinson
Ohio Valley – Samford
Pacific-10 – UCLA
Patriot – Navy
SEC – Mississippi
Southern – Furman
Southland – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
SWAC – Southern University
Summit – Oral Roberts
Sun Belt – South Alabama
West Coast – Pepperdine
WAC – Hawaii
Additional Information