Tennis player beats nation's best at Super Bowl
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| Damian Hume |
After beating Laredo Community College sophomore Cledson Carvalho, the No. 1 ranked junior college player in the country, in three sets at last month’s ITA Southwest Regional Championships, Collin College’s Damian Hume won the ITA National Small College Championships in Mobile.
On top of winning the tournament, Hume was awarded the 2009 James O’Hara Sargent Sportsmanship Award.
The Small College Championships bring together the very best players from community colleges (both NJCAA and California), NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and the NAIA for a unique event in college sports. After a playoff to determine which of the eight best players in each division deserves the number-one ranking in that division, the four winners play each other in the ‘Super Bowl’ to determine who will earn a berth in the ITA National Collegiate Indoor Championships, Nov. 5-8 at Yale University.
In the Junior College Division tournament, Hume faced Lloyd Bruce-Burgess of Cowley County Community College. Hume prevailed, 7-5, 6-1. In the semifinals, he then dispatched the California champion, Kirill Sinitsyn of Fresno City College, 6-4, 6-2. Although it took him five set points to win each set, Hume managed to defeat Carvalho by a score of 7-5, 6-3 to retain the title of the number-one junior college player in the country.
In his first match in the Super Bowl, Hume beat John Watts of NCAA Division III Washington University in St. Louis, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1. In the finals, he played his best match against the NAIA Champion, Alberto Romero Gonzalez of Auburn Montgomery University in Alabama. Having won the first set 6-4, and up 4-5 in the second with Gonzales serving, Hume came back from a love-40 deficit to take the Super Bowl championship.
For more information, visit http://www.itatennis.com/.
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