Sept. 30, 2004

WACO, Texas - Men's tennis' Barry McLaren will travel to Tennessee this weekend, Oct. 1-3, to participate in the prequalifying rounds of the 2004 Icy/Hot ITA All-American Championships at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tenn.

In the ITA tournament last year, Baylor's Benedikt Dorsch was a finalist, but was defeated by Washington's Alex Vlaski in the championship match. In 2002, Dorsch won the prequalifying and qualifying rounds, seven straight, to make it to the main draw, and won five more matches before being eliminated in the semifinals.

In the first round of action on Friday, McLaren will face Marijan Panzic of Bradley University. If McLaren beats Panzic, he will face Arant Sitaram of Middle Tennessee in the second round on Friday. Sitaram sat out the first round with a bye.

Last weekend at the Baylor Intercollegiate, McLaren won his first-three matches, but suffered defeat to Ian Vazquez-Rowe 6-3, Ret.(ill.) in the semifinal round. McLaren, of Edinburgh, Scotland, sat out last season due to injury. He was named Academic All-Big 12 his freshman season after finishing with a 15-8 record.

In its 25th year of existence, the ITA Men's Championships is the first of three national singles and doubles titles of the 2004-05 collegiate season. The ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in November and the NCAA Championships in May are the other two national titles.

The field of over 300 athletes is the largest singles tournament of the year in collegiate tennis. This weekend, 192-singles and 96-doubles teams will compete to make the cut to 128-singles and 64-doubles slots in the qualifying tournament Oct. 4-6. The main draw of the tournament will consist of 64-singles and 32-doubles teams Oct. 7-10. .