SKILLMAN, N.J. -- The Elon Phoenix men's tennis program garnered its highest team ranking of the season, coming in at 61st in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association's (ITA) rankings. The Phoenix moved up five spots from last week's 66th-place ranking.
Senior
Damon Gooch is now rated as the 76th-best player in the country in singles play. Gooch is 14-8 in singles play this year.
The doubles duo of Gooch and
Philip Nemec is now ranked 34th in the nation. The pair has posted a 19-4 mark during the 2009 season.
This marks the third consecutive season that coach Michael Leonard's squad has appeared in the ITA's national team rankings. In 2007, the Phoenix peaked at No. 42 before finishing at No. 44. In 2008, Elon peaked at No. 51 but fell out of the rankings prior to the end of the season. The Phoenix had never been ranked among the top-75 teams at the NCAA Division I level prior to the 2007 campaign. Elon has defeated at least one nationally-ranked opponent during each of the past four seasons.
Gooch has been a cornerstone for the Phoenix at No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles throughout his career, earning SoCon Freshman of the Year accolades in 2006 and helping his team to capture a pair of SoCon regular-season championships to go with a SoCon tournament title and an NCAA tournament appearance. He has also appeared on the Academic All-Southern Conference and ITA Scholar-Athlete teams.
The Phoenix hits the homestretch of its regular season slate, hosting two matches at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center this week. On Wednesday at 2 p.m., Elon will play host to Triad rival UNC Greensboro in a match to determine the second seed in the upcoming SoCon Tournament which will be hosted by Elon. The Phoenix will then host a noon league contest with The Citadel on Saturday afternoon for Senior Day.
-- ELON --
