For Immediate Release: October 20, 2009
Contact: John Hartrick (hartrick@binghamton.edu)
Phone: 607-777-6800

BU men's tennis standout Vloedgraven wins ITA regional crown
Junior wins six matches to seize title, advance to national event

Updated Brackets

HANOVER, N.H. -- Binghamton men's tennis junior Sven Vloedgraven capped a remarkable showing by winning the singles title at the ITA Northeast Regional, hosted by Dartmouth over the last six days.

Vloedgraven, seeded fourth in the 128-man draw, won two matches on Tuesday to become the first BU player to win the prestigious ITA event. In the morning, Vloedgraven posted a 7-6, 6-3 victory over Andy Gauthier of Cornell in the semifinals. One hour later, he returned to the court and battled past Marc Powers of Yale in the championship match, 4-6, 6-0, 6-2. Vloedgraven now advances to the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championship, held November 5-8 at Yale.

"It was a tremendous effort by Sven and a great achievement for Binghamton men's tennis," head coach Adam Cohen said. "He had to win six quality matches to win the championship and he played a fantastic tournament. To drop the first set in the final and then come back and play the way he did for the last two sets shows his determination and skill. He is such a great competitor. He's never out of a match."

Vloedgraven now advances to the 32-man ITA national event. The 12 regional champions plus at-large selections will comprise the singles draw, which begins November 5 at Yale. There, Vloedgraven will be among the elite tennis players in the country.

"This success couldn't happen to a better person than Sven," Cohen continued. "He is a top-notch student (honors accounting student), works hard in practice and does all the right things on and off court. He has stepped up his level of play and the national tournament will be a great experience for him."

Vloedgraven, the reigning America East Player of the Year and America East Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year, is 13-3 this fall. The ITA regional crown will likely result in a lofty regional ranking and Vloedgraven's debut in the national ranking when they are released in January. He was ranked No. 15 in the Northeast in the final regional ranking last May.

Binghamton had a program-best six singles and three doubles teams invited to the ITA event. No BU player had ever advanced beyond the Round of 16 at the ITA Regional (Akshay Rao in 2002, Dan Hanegby in 2003).

Vloedgraven at ITA Northeast Regional
Round	Opponent (seed)	School	Result
64	Mike Hill	Brown	W 6-2, 6-3
32	Pavel Cerny (17)	St. John's	W 6-1, 4-6, 6-1
16	Roope Kailaheimo	Stony Brook	W 6-3, 6-2
Qtrs.	Alexei Chijoff-Evans (5)	Harvard	W 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
Semis	Andy Gauthier (12)	Cornell	W 7-6, 6-3
Final	Marc Powers	Yale	W 4-6, 6-0, 6-2