Wednesday, 05/23/2012

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – History was made earlier this month when Bucknell’s Gregg Cohenca and Evan Zimmer accepted a bid to compete as a doubles team at the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships, set for the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga. Competition begins Thursday and runs through Monday.

Should they advance, the Bucknell pairing will take on either Jonas Lutjen/Nik Scholtz of Mississippi or Andre Dome/Matt Fawcett of Cal Poly in the next round.

Cohenca, a senior, and Zimmer, a junior, earned the Patriot League’s automatic berth to the NCAA bracket as the League’s highest-ranked tandem. They will go up against the Kentucky duo of Panav Jha and Eric Quigley, who are seeded No. 7, when competition starts Thursday.

Cohenca and Zimmer are the second and third Patriot League student-athletes to earn invites to the individual field in the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships. Navy’s Mitch Koch earned a singles bid in 2000, but declined to compete because his event fell on the day he was graduating. Cohenca and Zimmer are the first two in League history to take the court in the individual portion of the NCAA Men's Tennis Championships.

Cohenca and Zimmer combined for a 20-5 mark this season, including a 10-2 ledger at No. 1 doubles during the spring.

Cohenca ranks second in Bucknell history in doubles victories with 70, while his 118 career wins are third in Bison annals. Zimmer’s 56 doubles wins are eighth in school history, and he ranks 10th in combined victories with 102.

Both players have been at or above .500 each year in doubles action. Cohenca is 26-11 this season overall in doubles play, while Zimmer has accumulated a 31-6 mark in 2011-12 while part of a tandem. Zimmer was 12-12 last year in doubles and 13-7 the season before as a freshman. Cohenca has improved his win total each year at Bucknell, starting with 13 his freshman campaign, 15 his sophomore year and 16 in his junior season before this year’s 26.
   

Streaming video of the event is available via the NCAA here. In addition, live scoring can be found here, while the bracket is located here and a video preview from BisonVision is available here.