Broncos Compete at ITA Midwest Regionals

KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Western Michigan men's tennis team will be back in action for the second of three straight weeks, when they compete at the 2012 ITA Midwest Regionals hosted by Michigan State. A total of 20 teams from the ITA Midwest Region will compete at the event, which began on Thursday, October 18 at 8 a.m.

The weekend will begin with the singles qualifying round on Thursday, with five Broncos looking to earn their way to the main singles draw on Friday. Aaron Wong enters the qualifier as a seeded entry, and will open his weekend with a singles match against Rahul Kamath from Illinois-Chicago. Freshman Jim Beckwith, who compiled a 5-2 overall record last week at the Tennessee Fall Classic, will also play in the qualifying draw, as well as Michael Treis, Marc Shideler, and Stephen Payne.

The Broncos placed two players in the main singles draw to begin the tournament, with senior Ross VanderPloeg and impressive freshman Andrew Cahn each starting the tournament in the main field. VanderPloeg draws the match-up of Ohio State's Connor Smith in the first round, while Cahn faces Illinois's Jared Hiltzik.

WMU will be fielding perhaps what was their best doubles pairing in the 2011-12 season when Nadin Indre makes his 2012-13 debut, teaming with VanderPloeg in the doubles draw. The pair is the sixth-seeded doubles pairing in the draw, and will open their tournament on Friday morning with a match against Matt Kuelker and Matt Ford of Cleveland State. Beckwith and Payne will hope to build on their exemplary performance at the Tennessee Fall Invitational, where they went 3-0 en route to the Volunteer Doubles championship; they will face Notre Dame's Ryan Bandy and Quentin Monaghan in the first round.