Oct. 19, 2012

New Haven, Conn. - After having three individuals and one doubles team in last year's competition, the Fordham men's tennis team will have the full complement of four singles players and two doubles team in the 2012 ITA Northeast Regional Championship, hosted at Yale University this weekend.

Fordham's Kuba Kowalski, Srikar Alla, Emilio Mora, and Mischa Koran are all slated to compete in the main singles draw, which begins on Friday. In the doubles main draw, Kowalski and Alla will play together with Mora and Koran in the second pair.

"To have four players in the main draw of singles and two doubles teams in the main draw is a great accomplishment for our program," said head coach Cory Hubbard. "Just two years ago, it was the first time we sent any players to the regional and only got the mandated one singles and one doubles team in the main draw."

"We have the most players in the main draw of any team in the region besides the Ivy schools and St. John's, which are all nationally ranked, so we are closing the gap the fast. Most importantly, this is a reward for these guys to get invited to the main draw, and they have all earned their way in to the tournament, as many players get into the draw based on the name of the school, while my guys got in based on their play on the court."

In addition to the reward of getting into the tournament based on their play, Kowalski will be a seeded player at the ITA Regional as a 17-32 seed, which automatically moves him into the second round of the 6th Eighth Draw against the winner of Yuri Gricheno (FDU) and Will Reznik (Marist). Kowalski earned the seed after finishing last season ranked 19th in the Northeast Region and posting a 21-9 singles record.

"Kuba had such a great spring season last year that he earned a seed for the regional, which is a big deal to have a player seeded. I think all four of my guys have a legitimate shot at advancing deep in the tournament, and have the ability to beat anyone they play."

Besides Kowalski In singles play, Koran is in the 2nd Eighth Draw and will face Penn's Ismael Lahlou in the opening round with the winner moving on to face #16 Xander Centenari of Dartmouth. Alla is in the 3rd Eighth matching up with Fairfield's Erik Kremheller. The winner will face #15 Jeremy Court of Penn. Mora is the final singles player in the 7th Eighth Section, as he takes on Brown's Dan Hirschberg. The winner will move onto a second round match with #17-32 seed Cameron Ghorbani of Dartmouth.

In doubles, Fordham's pairing of Alla and Kowalski is in the 1st Quarter Draw against Monmouth's Freddy Marcinkski and Ramy Bekheit, while Mora and Koran are in the 4th Quarter Flight against Penn's Nikola Kocovic and Austin Kaplan.

"Mischa and Emilio have done a very good job in doubles and are really starting to understand the tactics and growing as a team. I think they can be very dangerous this tournament."