University of Louisville
Omni Regional
Radman and Johnson Edged in ITA Midwest Regional Championship Finals
October 24, 2006 | Men's Tennis
Oct. 24, 2006
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - - Louisville's 26th ranked doubles team of Slavko Radman and Damar Johnson was edged by Notre Dame's Ryan Keckley and Sherra Parbhu 9-8(5) in the finals of the ITA Midwest Regional Championship Tuesday at the University of Minnesota.
"We played well today, holding our serves easily, but our returns didn't come as well," said Radman. "We couldn't get into a rhythm, and couldn't get any break points. In the tiebreak, they were serving well. It was really close, we knew one point was going to decide the match and they won it."
Radman and Johnson, the tournament's top-seeded team, won five straight matches in the ITA Midwest Regional, defeating teams from Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio State and Michigan State to advance to the championship match. The finals pitted the tournament's No. 1 and No. 2 seeded teams, and BIG EAST conference opponents against each other. Notre Dame's Keckley and Parbhu, No. 36 in the ITA doubles rankings outlasted Radman and Johnson 9-8(5) to earn the title and the automatic bid to the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, Nov. 2-5, at Ohio State University.
"Coming into this season, we thought we were good enough to win a tournament," said Johnson. "This fall we played in two tournaments and fell short in the third round because we didn't put right things together. This time we finally put it together. It was a clean match, both teams played well. it came down to a point here and there."
ITA Midwest Regional Results
Doubles Finals
Ryan Keckley/Sherra Parbhu (UND) d. Slavko Radman/Damar Johnson 9-8(5)
Players Mentioned
