Brother-Sister Tennis Duo at UNCW 

Kosta Blank Leads UNCW to CAA Championships

                      Kosta Blank

Kosta Blank, playing #1 for the University of North Carolina at Wilmington men's team, led his team to the Colonial Athletic Association Championships.  The Seahawks ended up with a Division 1 team ranking of 38 and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Auburn.  The team was 21-4 in dual matches this year.

                    Olga Blank

WILMINGTON, North Carolina - For the second time this season, UNCW's freshman team of Olga Blank and Angie Sekely have been named the Colonial Athletic Association's Women's Tennis Doubles Team of the Week.

The duo, recognized following the opening week of the spring campaign, went 2-0 at No. 1 doubles in two matches for the Seahawks, who were ranked 68^th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Rankings last week. Blank and Sekely have compiled a sparkling 15-3 record this spring.

Blank and Sekely defeated Charleston Southern's Heather Isbell and Angelica Torres, 8-6, and edged South Carolina State's Maria Craciun and Daria Sekerina, 9-8 (1).

"I'm excited for Angie and Olga to be recognized again for their outstanding doubles play," said veteran coach Jenny Garrity. "They have won 10 of their last 12 matches at the No. 1 position, including last week's tie-breaker win over a tough South Carolina State team to clinch the doubles point.

"They have played with tremendous poise and fight and their communication has been outstanding.

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                                           Nadine Fahoum

               Fahoum Ends College Career at Duke                         

 Nadine Fahoum ended her outstanding college tennis career at Duke University with the ranking of #39 in the NCAA women's division 1 group.  Fahoum played number 1 for the Duke Blue Devils tennis team this year. The team reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship tounament and lost to UCLA.  Duke was ranked #3 in the U.S. in NCAA D1 women's tennis.  Fahoum also qualified for both the NCAA individual singles tournament and the doubles tournament (with partner Ellah Nze).

                                               Amit Inbar

              Inbar Leads UCLA to NCAA Men's Tournament 

Senior Amit Inbar helped the UCLA men's tennis team reach the round of 16 of the NCAA Team Championships.  In a match lasting close to five hours, the 12th-seeded UCLA men's tennis team lost a heartbreaker suffering a 4-3 loss to fifth-seeded Baylor at Stanford's Taube South Courts. Inbar, ranked 59th in NCAA Division 1 tennis, qualified for the NCAA individual singles tournament for the top 64 players, losing in the 2nd round.   

                                Idan Mark Excels in First Year at Tulane

New ORLEANS -  Idan Mark of the Tulane men's tennis team received postseason honors from the Conference USA office. 

Mark, a sophomore, was named the Newcomer of the Year, second-team all-conference in singles, and joined teammate Radu Ionescu, a senior, as a first-team all-conference selection in doubles.

"I'm very proud of these guys for being able to achieve this level of success in basically their first year of competition in the program," Tulane head coach Mark Booras said. "Idan was with us last year, but had to sit out the whole year. In his first year back he set a standard at No. 1 for us and was able to compete well and put himself as one of the top players in our conference.

The duo paired up for a 7-2 record in doubles this season and has won two straight matches before Ionescu was sidelined with an injury. The only two losses suffered by the pair was at Mississippi State and Ole Miss.

In singles, Mark, was ranked No. 101 nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, He posted a 12-7 dual match record in singles, including a 4-3 mark in conference matches. The Hod Hasharon, Israel, native finished the season with three wins in the last four decisions, including wins over conference foes UAB and Southern Miss.

"This is a great honor for Idan," Booras said. "He set a tone for our team of what to expect competitively, in practice and academically. He's been successful in all three of those areas. On the court he was ranked a couple of different times nationally during the year as a first year player is quite an honor. We expect even better things next year and the remainder of his Tulane career."

Mark and Ionescu helped guide the Green Wave to an 11-11 overall dual record this spring.