Vallverdu Invited to NCAA Singles Championships
April 29, 2009
CORAL GABLES, FLA… – For the third time in as many years, senior Daniel Vallverdu of the University of Miami men’s tennis team was selected to the 2009 NCAA Singles Championships field on Wednesday evening. He enters the field as a 9-16 seed among the 64 participating student-athletes.
Vallverdu, a four-time All-American from Valencia, Venezuela, is making his fourth-straight NCAA appearance – and his third straight in the singles bracket, having advanced to the Round of 32 last year and the Round of 16 as a sophomore.
This season, Vallverdu bounced back from a late fall injury to enter the postseason ranked 13th in Monday’s Campbell’s/ITA singles poll with a 17-5 overall record, including a 7-1 mark in ACC play. The senior has won eight of his last nine matches at the top flight singles spot for head coach Mario Rincon’s Hurricanes, while collecting 10 wins over ranked opponents.
The singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 20-25 at Texas A&M’s George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas, following the conclusion of the team championship (May 15-19). All matches will be the best of three sets, with regular scoring and a 12-point tiebreaker at six games used for all matches.
Vallverdu is among 13 ACC players selected to this year’s singles tournament.
As a team, Miami opens play in the NCAA Tournament as part of the Gainesville (Fla.) Regional on May 8 at 1 p.m., facing No. 53 Columbia, winners of the Ivy League for the second time in the past three years.
Miami currently holds a No. 22 national ranking in the latest Campbell’s/ITA national rankings as the Hurricanes enter the postseason with a 14-8 record.
