Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Men's Tennis Adds 2004 NCAA Tournament Participant Rodrigo Lama
06/01/2004 | 12:00:00 | Men's Tennis
June 1, 2004
By Lou Antoine
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois men's tennis team added an athlete with NCAA Tournament experience with the signing of Rodrigo Lama this week. The Santiago, Chile native will be a sophomore for the Salukis during the 2004-05 school year, after transferring from South Carolina State University.
Saluki head coach Missy Jeffrey originally recruited Lama in 2003, before he went to South Carolina State last year. As a member of the SCSU team in 2004, Lama finished the year 13-5 in singles and 13-7 in doubles.
"I am really happy to be adding such a top quality player to our team who will be coming in with solid collegiate experience including NCAA Tournament experience," added Jeffrey.
South Carolina State reached the NCAA Tournament, losing in the first round to #15 North Carolina 4-0. Lama was leading 6-4, 3-1 when the team match was decided. Prior to SCSU, Lama was ranked #2 in singles and #1 in doubles in Chile in the Boys 18 and under with a world junior ranking (ITF) in the top 200 in singles and the top 150 in doubles.
SIU returns five of its top six players, losing just one senior (Peter Bong) from a team that finished 10-11, 2-6 in the MVC (7th). Seniors Julian Angel Botero, Alexandru Nomicos and Lukasz Soswa and juniors Tomas Gonzales and Bojan Ilievski will return with Lama to form the nucleus of next year's squad.
