Beam's best leads to semis at ITA Championships

By Kareem Copeland

Daily Sports Writer

Last weekend Wisconsin welcomed 128 of the best players in the region to compete for the ITA Region IV Championship. With such fierce competition each player in attendance would have to endure a string of tough matches against highly ranked opponents.

Well, no one had to tell Henry Beam - he clearly brought his A-game.

Beam finished with a 4-1 record before bowing out in the semifinals against the No. 10 seed from Minnesota. Two of his four victories were over top five players. But three three-set matches took its toll over the No. 14 seeded Wolverine.

"Henry played extremely well all the way through," said Coach Mark Mees. "I think the tank just ran a little dry."

Beam upset No. 5 Javier Taborga (Notre Dame), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4 in the fourth round. He then showed tremendous heart in another marathon defeating No. 2 Jason Marshall (Purdue), 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-2. Mees was, "a little disappointed," he said. "I really thought he could have the won the whole tournament;" as a team, "we did some good things-then we had some situations I thought we should have won."

Junior Greg Novak had his way with his first two opponents before running into Marshall.

His teammate - Beam - would later avenge that loss.

"Greg did some good things-he beat Notre Dame and Ball State badly," said Coach Mees.

The Wolverines head to Nevada for the Las Vegas Shootout on November 3.