April 25, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

Indianapolis, Ind. - The UIC men's tennis team was honored by its Horizon League peers prior to the start of the league tournament at the championship banquet, held on Friday evening in Indianapolis.

The Flames had four student-athletes earn league accolades for a standout season. Adriano Liccardo, Bastian Harbo, Sebastian Lystad and Eric Fey were all named to the All-Horizon League Second Team.

Liccardo has played in the first singles slot for the Flames in the second half of league action, amassing a 3-3 conference record behind a 12-8 overall dual match tally.

Harbo, pairing with Liccardo, clinched the doubles point with a tiebreaker win against Butler at No. 1 doubles en-route to the Flames 4-3 victory over the Bulldogs. The sophomore has a perfect 6-0 league record at the third singles position, and has tied the most singles victories in a season, currently sitting with 20 wins on the year.

Sebastian Lystad, the 2007 league Newcomer of the Year, has tallied a 2-4 league record, split between the first and second singles positions. The sophomore picked up four doubles victories against league foes, primarily with Eric Fey.

Fey, UIC's all-time leader in doubles victories for a career, went 5-1 against Horizon League opponents, only falling in a tight tiebreaker match against Butler. Fey was also named the recipient of the Herb Foster Sportsmanship Award. The honor recognizes `student-athletes who display admirable conduct both on and off the court'.

This is the first season the Flames have had more than two student-athletes receive league honors since the 1998 season.

Head Coach Hans Neufeld was honored with the second Coach of the Year accolade of his career after guiding the Flames to a 13-9 (5-1 Horizon League) season. 2008 saw Neufeld defeat Butler for the first time of his career on April 18, breaking the Bulldogs 49 match winning streak.

The second-seeded Flames will take on the seventh-seed, Youngstown State, on Saturday at 8 a.m. EST.