WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Phalkun Mam and the Whitman College men's tennis team have moved up a notch in the NCAA Div. III national rankings.
Mam, a senior, is ranked No. 4 nationally in singles, according to the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings, released earlier today. Mam, who moved up one spot from his ranking last fall, is the highest ranked Whitman player in 20-plus years. He won last fall's ITA Northwest Regional singles title and placed fifth at the Division III National Small College Tennis Championships in Fort Myers, Florida.
Meanwhile, in the latest national team rankings, Whitman has climbed to No. 15, also one spot higher than in the fall.
Mam and his doubles partner, senior Steven Ly, have also broken into the national rankings in doubles. Mam and Ly, who were not ranked in the fall, have moved into the the No. 10 spot. Ly was last spring's Northwest Conference (NWC) Player of the Year and was the only player from the conference to advance to the NCAA Div. III National Singles Championships.
As a team, the Missionaries have a shot at moving up the national ladder by the time next rankings are released in mid-April. Whitman, 14-3 on the season and 12-0 in the NWC, is in the midst of a Spring Break trip to California in which it plays two teams above them in the national rankings. The Missionaries play No. 12 Redlands on Friday and No. 13 Kalamazoo next Monday. They also face No. 16 Bowdoin next Tuesday.
New West Region rankings were also released earlier today. Whitman remains the top-ranked NWC school at No. 5. UC-Santa Cruz is No. 1, followed in order by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Trinity (Texas) and Redlands. In the national rankings, UC-Santa Cruz is No. 1 while C-M-S is No. 4.
In the regional singles rankings, Mam is No. 2, trailing only Matt Seebereger of UC-Santa Cruz. Ly is No. 6 in the singles rankings, behind two C-M-S players and one from UC-Santa Cruz.
Ly and Mam are No. 4 in the regional doubles rankings. Two Whitman freshmen, Matt Solomon and Nadeem Kassam, are the region's seventh-ranked doubles duo. Solomon and Kassam won last fall's ITA Northwest Regional doubles title.
The Missionary men's team has two home matches left this spring. It hosts NWC matches against George Fox and Lewis & Clark on March 30-31. The NWC Championships are set for April 20-21 in Yakima, Wash., with the winner getting an automatic berth into the NCAA Div. III post-season.
Dave Holden, Whitman Sports Information
(509) 527-5902; holden@whitman.edu