Freshmen Educate Upperclassmen at NCAAs on Thursday

©Colette Lewis 2005--
College Station TX--

By the time the skies opened at Texas A & M on Thursday afternoon, four unseeded freshmen had earned NCAA All-American honors by reaching the Round of 16 at the NCAA Division 1 Men's Championships.

Luke Shields of Boise State posted the most impressive result, disposing of Duke junior Ludovic Walter, the tournament's fifth seed, 6-4, 6-2. Shields, ranked 46th in the country, believed the conditions were a factor in his win.



"Due to the courts being not so fast, it helps me out a bit," said Shields, the Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year. “A guy like Walter has a big serve and it slows it down. It helps guys who don't hit the ball as fast.”

Walter, an All-American in 2004, gave much of the credit to Shields.

“At 4-5, he came up with some big shots and broke me for the first set,” said the native of Vannes France. “From that point on I felt like he got more confidence, moving forward, coming to the net. He played a solid match.”

Greg Ouellette of Florida followed up on his first round win over the eighth seed by eliminating unseeded Stephane Rod of Virginia Tech 7-6 (4), 7-5, and fellow lefthander Travis Helgeson of Texas took down Georgia’s 21st ranked John Isner 6-3, 6-4.

Kevin Anderson of Illinois, the Midwest Region’s Freshman of the Year, had no trouble with 38th ranked Gabor Zoltan, dropping the senior from Auburn 6-4, 6-2.

The only seeded freshman, Jerry Makowski of Texas A & M, also advanced, beating yet another freshman, Lars Poerschke of Baylor 7-6 (3), 6-3.

Asked if he thought freshmen had been underrated, Makowski, an alphabetical seed, said, "Maybe, but I think it's set up so you have to prove yourself, and there's nothing wrong with that. That's what the juniors and seniors here have had to do."


Doubles play began late Thursday afternoon, and half of the seeded teams were defeated. The fourth seeded team of Scott Green and Ross Wilson of Ohio State, the ITA Indoor champions, fell 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to Marco Born and Andreas Siljestrom of Middle Tennessee. The alphabetically seeded teams of Ockie Oosthuizen and Ben Rogers of Tennessee, Scott Doerner and Pedro Rico of Pepperdine and Hamid Mirzadeh and Greg Ouellette of Florida all suffered first round losses.

John Isner and Antonio Ruiz of Georgia, the top-ranked team, survived a heated battle with New Mexico's David Kowalski and Ryan Stotland 6-7 (3), 7-6 (2), 6-4. The second seeded team, defending NCAA champions K.C. Corkery and Sam Warburg of Stanford, also needed three sets to advance, beating Oklahoma State's Daniel Byrnes and Mark Van Elden 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.


For complete draws visit the Official NCCA website