Oct. 18, 2009

Hanover, N.H. - Junior Ivan Rummel (Budapest, Hungary) advanced all the way to the quarterfinal round at the East Region ITA Men's Tennis Championships at Dartmouth College, leading a contingent of six Stony Brook players competing at the event.

Rummel started out with a three set match on Saturday in the round of 64. After taking the first set against Yohei Shoji from Princeton, Rummel had to hold off his opponent's attempt at a comeback in a close 7-5; 4-6; 7-6(1) victory. He had it a bit easier in his next match against Mark Milbrandt from Penn, winning in straight sets by a 6-0, 6-2 score. He then moved on to the quarters with a 6-2, 7-6 (3) win over Christian Coley from Marist. In the quarterfinal on Monday morning Rummel's run came to a halt when Andy Gauthier of Cornell took a 6-1, 6-4 decision from him.

Freshman Roope Kailaheimo (Helsinki, Finland) also fared well for the Seawolves, advancing to the round of 16. He started with straight sets victories over Erik Blumenkranz of Yale and Derek Wallensteen from Marist. He then came from behind against Jason Magnes from Penn in a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 decision before falling today to Sven Vloedgraven from America East rival Binghamton, 6-3, 6-2.

Senior Halvar Dil (Amersfort, Netherlands) split a pair of matches for the Seawolves, downing Jai Yoon from Connecticut by a 6-2, 6-3 margin before having to retire from his match with John Huang from Yale. Sophomore Mitch Wong (Tampa, Fla.) won a pair of matches in the singles qualifying draw over opponents from Hofstra and Drexel before dropping a 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-0 match to Matt Siow of Princeton. Senior Jon Epstein (Silver Spring, Md.) also split a pair of matches, taking a 6-0, 6-0 win over Peter Skvarka from Fairleigh Dickinson before falling to Alistair Felton of Harvard, 6-3, 6-4.

In doubles play the team of Dil and Wong won their opening match 8-0 over Lampa/Wallensteen from St. John's before dropping an 8-1 decision to Deb-Sen/Kung of Columbia. Deb-Sen/Kung had advanced to that match with an 8-4 win over Stony Brook's other doubles team of Epstein and freshman Max Sztabholz (London, England).