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Men's Tennis
vs Orange and Blue Classic
Sunday, November 6
Columbus, Ohio
All Day
Duke University
at
Day Four
Walter Loses in Straight Sets in ITA National Indoor Championship Match
11/6/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Columbus, Ohio - Ludovic Walter played in his first career national championship match on Sunday at the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in Columbus, Ohio, losing in straight sets to Ben Kohlloeffel of UCLA.
Walter, ranked second in the country in the preseason ITA singles rankings, faced his fourth seeded opponent of the tournament and third player ranked in the top ten of the preseason ITA singles rankings. To get to the finals, Walter defeated fifth ranked Jerry Makowski of Texas A & M and ninth ranked K.C. Corkery of Stanford. Kohlloeffel, ranked third in the nation, was the fourth seed in the tournament. He edged Walter in the first set 7-5 and then finished the match with a 6-1 victory to earn his first career national championship.
"In my first four matches, I served and returned the ball really well," said Walter. "I played better than I had in any of the other tournaments. I think this is one of the toughest tournaments to play in. You have to qualify, be ranked high or do well at the All-American tournament and there are only 32 players who get in so they are all good."
Jonathan Stokke also competed for the Blue Devils on Sunday. He advance to the finals of the consolation bracket and squared against the No. 1 player in the country, Ryler DeHeart of Illinois. Both players lost their first matches of the tournament but advanced through the consolation bracket. Stokke gave the top player in the country a battle, winning the first set 7-6 (4), but DeHeart came back and took the final two sets 6-2, 6-4.
"I played him (Ryler DeHeart) in juniors a lot," said Stokke. "He has obviously gotten a lot better. It helped me knowing that I have beat him before. Usually in the back draw it is easy to roll over because you lost your first match but I wanted to try me best. It will help my confidence for the spring knowing that I can play with some of the better team's top one or two players."
The tournament was held at the Racquet Club of Columbus and was hosted by Ohio State University. It was the last tournament of the fall for Duke. They will be back on the courts for the Hidden Dual Tournament in Miami, Fla. on Jan. 13-15 and will play their first dual match on Jan. 29 when they host Old Dominion.
Players Mentioned
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