College Sports

LEWISTON, Maine — Junior Dustin Phillips, of Houston, and sophomore David Ashlock, of Arlington, are competing in the NCAA Division III national championship at the Wallach Tennis Center on the campus of Bates College.

Phillips will compete in both the singles and doubles tournament, while Ashlock will partner with Phillips to compete in the doubles portion of the competition.

Phillips enters the competition with a season record of 20-4. The transfer from Tyler Junior College had an outstanding first year as a Patriot. Phillips started the year by claiming the Top Flight Singles title at the American Southwest Conference Individual Championships in the fall.

A week later, Phillips advanced to the finals of the 64-player ITA Southwest Individual Championships.

Phillips fell in the finals of that tournament to Oliver Gaines of Trinity, who also made the 32-player NCAA field.

In the spring, Phillips assumed UT Tyler’s top flight position and helped guide the Patriots to a fifth-straight ASC East title and the Patriots’ first-ever ASC Title and NCAA Tournament appearance.

UT Tyler came within one match of advancing to the team championships, falling to Gustavus Adolphus in the third round, 5-0.

Phillips was selected to the All-ASC Team, All-ASC East first team and was named East Division Newcomer of the Year.

Phillips’ first-round opponent will be the No. 7-seed, John James of Mary Washington. The match is set for 8 a.m. Friday (CDT).

James helped lead the Eagles to a 22-7 record and a Capital Athletic Conference championship. James, a first-team All-CAC selection, and his teammates advanced to NCAA Team Championship tournament, but fell to Middlebury, 5-0, in the quarterfinals.

The winner of the Phillips/James match will face the winner of the match between Washington-St. Louis’ Charlie Cutler and Amherst’s Zach Lerner.

Phillips will also compete in the doubles tournament with partner David Ashlock.

Ashlock was also an All-ASC and All-ASC East first-team selection.

Phillips and Ashlock ended their 2008 season with a 15-2 record.

The duo carried a 12 match win streak into their final match of the season.

Phillips and Ashlock fell in their season finale, which took place in the third-round of the NCAA team tournament, to Andy Bryan and Charlie Paukert of Gustavus Adolphus, 8-3.

Phillips and Ashlock will get another shot at Bryan and Paukert, as the two teams will meet in the first round of the NCAA Doubles Championship.

The match is scheduled for 3 p.m.

The winner of the third-round rematch will take on the winner of the match between the No. 3 seeds Fil Marinkovic and Andrew Thomson of Middlebury and Brendan Kincaid and Scott Burtzlaff of Salisbury.

Dustin Phillips
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