Lomacki Selected to NCAA Singles Championship
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Subcommittee has selected University of Miami sophomore Piotr Lomacki as one of the 64 singles players that will compete in the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships.
The singles competition will be conducted May 25-30 at the Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla., following the conclusion of the team championship, which runs from May 19-24.
“Piotr loves tennis more than anyone I’ve ever coached,” said head coach Mario Rincon. “It’s a tremendous reward for him to be selected to compete against the very best players in the country at the NCAA individual tournament. He’s getting stronger and smarter on the court, and he can beat anyone on a given day. I’m looking forward to seeing him at his best at the NCAA Championships.”
Lomacki is the first Hurricane to be selected for the NCAA Singles Championships since 2009, when Daniel Vallverdu represented Miami in the tournament. Omar Aly was picked as an alternate for the tournament in 2013-14, although he did not play in the event.
Lomacki is one of six underclassmen and 15 total student-athletes from the Atlantic Coast Conference to be selected for the Championships.
Miami’s sophomore opened the spring season ranked No. 23 in ITA singles and ended at No. 42 following the ACC Championships. He was ranked in the top 40 for 17 of his singles matches this season. In doubles, Lomacki broke in to the ITA rankings at No. 66 prior to the ACC Championships, and is currently ranked No. 75 with teammate Nile Clark. Lomacki was recently tabbed to the All-ACC Second Team.
The native of Warsaw, Poland, won five singles matches over ranked opponents this season, including a three-set win over No. 16 Benjamin Lock of Florida State and a victory against No. 38 Brayden Schnur of North Carolina. He won two ACC doubles matches over ranked opponents: No. 10 Mac Styslinger and Thai-Son Kwaitkowski of Virginia and No. 30 Jack Murray and Brayden Schnur of UNC.
In singles, he won a team-high 14 matches, all at the top position, and tied for most wins in doubles with eight. Lomacki won 11 total singles matches in two sets, and five of his six ACC wins were in just two sets.
The University of Tulsa will serve as host for the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships. All matches shall be the best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a 7-point tiebreaker at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
Automatic qualification into the Division I singles championships is awarded to any conference with one or more eligible singles players ranked in the ITA Top 125 for eligible/entered singles players. For conferences with more than one singles player within the ITA Top 125 eligible/entered singles players, the subcommittee applies the NCAA selection criteria to determine which student-athlete is the automatic qualifier from those conferences. All singles players must have a minimum of 13 completed singles matches, with six matches in the spring, in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection.
