May 24, 2005

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Senior Dmitriy Koch and sophomore Alberto Sottocorno will represent Tulane in the NCAA Men's Tennis Doubles Championship which begins Thursday at the Mitchell Tennis Center on the campus of Texas A&M University.

Koch and Sottocorno open play on Thursday afternoon against Pedro Rico and Scott Doerner from Pepperdine in the first round of the Doubles Championship, which features 32 tandems. Match times will be set on Wednesday, but it will not begin before 1 p.m. Rico and Doerner are a 5-8 seed in the tournament. The top four seeds are designated while 5-8 are grouped together. With a victory on Thursday, the Green Wave duo would advance to play the winner of the match between Zach Granger and Miron Mann from Utah and Georgia Tech's Marko Rajevac and David North.

In doubles action, Koch and Sottocorno have combined for a 16-8 record this spring, including three wins over nationally-ranked tandems. They are ranked No. 27 in the nation in doubles. Pepperdine's Rico and Doerner are ranked No. 7 in the nation.

In singles play, Sottocorno was a Third Team All-Conference pick and a First Team All-Louisiana selection after leading the Green Wave with 20 dual-match victories. Koch was a Second Team selection in both Conference USA and Louisiana after playing at No. 1 all season.

The pair helped lead the Green Wave to its third straight Conference USA Championship this spring while the Wave also advanced to its ninth consecutive NCAA Tournament, falling in the second round to LSU.

This year marks the fifth straight season that the Green Wave has had a doubles team competing in the NCAA Championships. It is also the 10th year in a row that Tulane has had individuals competing in either the NCAA Singles or Doubles Championships. Last year, Michael Kogan qualifed in both singles and doubles. After losing in the first round of the doubles tournament, he advanced to the championship match in singles, the furthest a Green Wave tennis player has advanced since 1955.

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