Tuesday, 01/24/2012

Rock Hill, S.C.----The Wingate University men’s tennis team is picked to win the 2012 South Atlantic Conference regular season race by the league’s 10 coaches. The defending conference regular season champion Bulldogs received 94 points and five first place-votes to edge Anderson (S.C.) University for the top spot.
 
Seniors Matthew Lichtenstein (Darnestown, Md.), Flavio Rathsam (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Drew Owen (Kitchener, Ontario) were named to the pre-season All-SAC first team. Lichtenstein, Rathsam and Owen represented Wingate on the first team All-SAC squad in 2011. Both Lichtenstein and Rathsam have earned All-SAC honors two years in a row (2010, 2011).
 
This year, Lichtenstein is ranked number 46 in the current Campbell/ITA NCAA Division II national singles rankings. The number 14 player in the Southeast Region singles top 20, Lichtenstein was 15-6 overall at the number one singles position last year. He was 6-3 in SAC contests. In doubles, Lichtenstein was 15-4 overall at the number two flight with 2011 graduate Braeden Patchell (Oakville, Ontario). The duo was a perfect 9-0 in league matches.

Rathsam was 17-4 overall in singles last year, playing at the number three position. His 17 dual-match victories topped the Bulldog charts. In SAC contests, he was 7-2 overall. For his singles career, he is 46-6 overall and 22-2 in the SAC. Rathsam won 22 consecutive SAC matches before dropping the final two of the 2011 campaign.
 
Owen played number two singles and number one doubles for the Bulldogs last year. In singles, he was 14-6 overall and 7-2 in the SAC. For his career, Owen is 35-15 overall and 18-5 in the SAC. With Rathsam, Owen provided the Bulldogs with a solid number one doubles team. The pair were 10-10 overall last year, with a 4-5 ledger in SAC play.
 
In 2011, the Bulldogs defeated three nationally-ranked teams: Anderson, S.C. (29), Limestone (35) and Lincoln Memorial (47). They lost a close 5-4 match to number 12 Georgia College. The Bulldogs finished seventh in the SAC during head coach Michael Cabana’s first season. In five years, his teams have finished seventh, fourth, first, second and first.
 
The top six teams in the final standings will advance to the 2012 Food Lion SAC men’s tennis championship. This season’s tournament will be held in Rock Hill, S.C. at the Rock Hill Tennis Center on April 19-22.