Wednesday, April 25, 2007
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Zeki Tukel |
No. 37 Mercy College Men's Tennis Earns Fourth Straight NCAA Tournament Bid
Flyers to face Queens in First Round of Regional Play on May 3
DOBBS FERRY, NY - The Mercy College men's tennis team will be making its fourth straight trip to the NCAA Division II Championships, beginning with an East Regional first round match versus Queens College on Thursday, May 3. The Flyers, seeded No. 3 in their region, and the No. 6 seed Knights will meet at host Kutztown University in Kutztown, PA. The full field was announced by the NCAA on Wednesday.
Mercy is currently 9-3 overall and posted a 4-1 mark in East Coast Conference (ECC) play to finish second. The Flyers are currently ranked No. 37 in the nation and No. 3 in the Fila East regional rankings. They won five straight matches, including a 5-3 decision over Dowling in the semifinals of the ECC Championships, before falling 5-0 to No. 16 Concordia in the title match.
Queens currently carries a 9-7 overall record and finished fourth in the regular season conference standings at 2-3. Mercy defeated Queens by a score of 8-1 on April 14.
In last year's first round of the NCAA Tournament, Mercy dropped a heart-breaking 5-4 decision to Assumption. This year's team has its sights set higher.
"Every year our expectations are higher than the previous year," said head coach Barbaros Ozdogan. "We haven't won our first round match in the last three years, but this year we're shooting to advance to the final and hopefully move on to play at the national championships in Florida. Winning the regional and competing there would open new horizons for Mercy College men's tennis."
Mercy returns three players from last year's squad in sophomores Yusufcan Koksal (Ankara, Turkey), Vyacheslav Glebov (Krasnoyarsk, Russia) and Timon Prosper (Mardigras, St. George's). Ozdogan added three more talented newcomers into the mix as junior Alican Seren (Istanbul, Turkey), junior Zeki Tukel (Istanbul, Turkey), and freshman Carlos Ferreira (Sao Paolo, Brazil) have all played integral roles in the squad's success, with Seren earning All-ECC First Team honors.
"Queens has always been a tough opponent," said Ozdogan. "Facing them in the regional semifinals is going to be a great match and we are looking forward to it."
If the Flyers advance, they will face the winner of Kutztown (No. 2) versus Bentley (No. 7) in the second round on Friday, May 4, at Kutztown. The winner of each first- and second-round tournament will move on to the finals in Altamonte Springs, Florida, with the Central Florida Commission and Rollins College serving as co-hosts, May 9-12. The championships consist of a 16-team single elimination tournament.
About Mercy College Athletics
Mercy College is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II institution and a member of the East Coast Conference (ECC). The College competes in 15 men's and women's sports. To learn more about Mercy's Department of Athletics and Recreation, call (914) 674-7220 or visit http://www.mercyathletics.com/.
