October 11
Byron Balkin (Madison/Memorial) and Mitch Osborne (Crystal Lake, IL/Central), the top seed in the Division III doubles portion of the tournament, were eliminated in ITA Division III Small College Championships play in Mobile, Alabama Thursday.  The Warhawk duo fell to Tanner Brown and Erik Lim of Johns Hopkins University 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of afternoon play. Then in the first round of consolation play Thursday evening, they were edged again by Jackson Isaacs and Nick Szczurek of Emory University by the almost identical score of 7-6 (5) and 6-4.  Balkin and Osborne finished off the tournament in eighth place after being edged out one final time in their match for seventh place against Drew University's Raul Smego and Hunter Lathrop, 7-6(3), 5-7, 10-4.

The losses are the first defeats for the Whitewater duo after opening the season with nine consecutive victories.  Brown and Lim improved to 6-0.  Szczurek and Isaacs, members of Emory's NCAA III men's tennis championship team in May, are 6-1 this fall.  Johns Hopkins, like Emory and UW-Whitewater, qualified for the NCAA III championship team tournament last spring.

The ITA Division III doubles bracket

In recognition of reaching the ITA national tournament, Balkin and Osborne earn ITA Division III All-America honors.

Balkin and Osborne combined for a 19-10 record during the 2011-12 school year.  UW-Whitewater went 22-8, earning the school's sixth straight NCAA III tournament berth, where Whitewater advanced to the second round.

All participants in the ITA Small College Championship qualified by winning regional tournaments two weeks ago.  Balkin and Osborne won the ITA Midwest Regional hosted by Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota.

The principal season for UW-W men's tennis is in the second semester, with action getting underway January 25 with a match against Division I Northern Illinois University in Rockford, Illinois.


TF

October 6
Byron Balkin (Madison/Memorial) and Mitch Osborne (Crystal Lake, IL/Central) will continue their fall season with a trip to the ITA Small College Championships held at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center in Mobile, Ala. October 11-14, 2012.

The ITA Small College Championships include the winners of the singles and doubles at eight USTA/ITA regional championships. The ITA National Small College Championships include selections from NCAA Division II, NAIA and junior/community colleges.  The winners of each level, Division II, Division III, NAIA and junior college, will advance to a Super Bowl tournament on the last day of competition.  follow the men's doubles draw

Balkin and Osborne, the DIII Midwest Regional doubles champions, will square off in an eight team bracket starting October 11.  The winner of the Division III competition will advance to the superbowl bracket, along with winners of the other three divisions, to determine the winner the overall Small College ITA champion on Sunday, October 14.

Balkin and Osborne are the second set of teammates in Whitewater men's tennis history to qualify for the ITA national championship. The 2010 team of Jake Macey and Erik Scanlan (Libertyville, IL/Libertyville) were the most recent to accomplish the feat. The women have also had success with in ITA Small College Championships, with singles qualifier in Kalla Schaefer in 2009, and Schaefer joining teammate Alexandra Bayliss in doubles in 2011 when Schaefer also qualified for singles play again.
 
Not only do Balkin and Osborne earn a berth into this tournament, they receive automatic All-American honors as a doubles team for their achievement.

Balkin and Osborne, 9-0, concluded their journey to the national championships in the regional September 30th by defeating the team of Amrik Donkena and Mya Smith-Dennis of Gustavus-Adolphus College in the USTA/ITA regional,  6-2, 6-3 to earn win the doubles championship. Donkena and Smith-Dennis were the reigning regional doubles champions. 



For more about the regional and ITA Small College Championship as well as a video of the regional doubles final see assistant coach Daniel Bickett's blog for picutures and video from the championship run of Balkin and Osborne.


DW/tf