Oct. 25, 2004

AUSTIN, TExas - Men's tennis earned a spot at the ITA National Indoor Championships next weekend after winning both the singles and doubles brackets at the ITA Central Regional in Austin on Monday. Lars Poerschke won the singles bracket and combined with teammate Matija Zgaga to win the doubles bracket to advance to the championship tournament.

Poerschke's singles title marks the second consecutive time a Baylor player has won the regional qualifying tournament. Last year, Benjamin Becker won the ITA South Central Regional in Fort Worth.

In his first match of the day, Poerschke quickly defeated Callum Beal of Texas 6-4, 6-4 advancing to the final round and automatically earning a spot in the national tournament. Then in the finals round, Poerschke slammed the door on Bojan Szumanski of Texas Tech 7-6, 6-4 for his first tournament championship in just his second month of his Baylor career.

In doubles play, Poerschke and Zgaga put away Evghenii Corduneau and Dusan Tabak of Louisiana-Lafayette 8-4. In the finals match, the Baylor duo knocked-off top-seeded Rafael Abreu and Frabizio Sestini of TCU 8-3.

Next weekend, the pair will play at the ITA National Indoor Championships held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The national indoor is the second of three championship tournaments recognized in the 2004-05 collegiate season. The ITA Men's Championships in September is the first of the season, concluded with the NCAA Championships in May.