PHILADELPHIA – The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) released its latest set of rankings, and Penn was represented with three players in the top 15 in the Northeast Region. In addition, Penn had a doubles team crack the top 10.
Junior Hicham Laalej leads the way, earning a ranking of No. 10 in the Northeast. Laalej started the season ranked No. 105 in the country and advanced to the round of 16 at the ITA Regional this past fall.
Fellow junior, Adam Schwartz is ranked No. 12 in the region after posting a 10-4 record in the fall season. Schwarts also advanced to the round of 16 at the ITA Regional and made it all the way to the finals of the ITA Collegiate Invitational.
Rounding out the Quakers in the singles rankings is freshman Phil Law. He comes in at No. 15 with a fall record of 13-4. Law advanced to the round of 16 at the ITA Regional and won the Columbia Invitational as well as the Sportsmanship Award at the event.
Law and Laalej parlayed their impressive fall in doubles into a ranking of No. 7 in the region.
In addition to the players who earned regional rankings, several others turned in solid fall seasons. Freshman Jason Lin ended the fall with a record of 10-4 while defeating Cornell’s No. 1 singles player. Alex Vasin finished the fall at 10-4 with wins over the top players from both Yale and George Washington. Justen Roth was 5-3 while the doubles teams of Zach Gorn and Dmitry Bury were a perfect 4-0 at the City 6 Championship for the win. Captain Jonathan Boym sat out the fall with injury but is now healthy and will return for the spring season.
Penn opens the 2009 season at home against Drexel on Jan. 24 at 1 p.m. in the Levy Tennis Pavilion.