AZUSA, Calif. -- Washburn stays in California for two top-20 matches over the weekend. The Ichabods play Azusa Pacific on Saturday and Hawaii Pacific at on Sunday at 4 p.m. CT

First Serve

• The men's team defeated Concordia Irvine, 5-2, on Thursday
• Washburn is now 1-0 in the state of California
• After a loss to No. 7 Indianapolis, the Ichabods have won seven straight including a win over No. 17 Ouachita Baptist
• The Ichabods are 9-1 on the season

2022 Ichabods

• Daniel Bird since joining the Ichabods has a 14-4 singles record and a 15-6 doubles record. Bird was All-MIAA Second Team at No. 5 singles in 2021
• Raul-Alin Dicu is a fifth-year senior holding an overall singles record of 51-40 and overall doubles record of 47-38. He is a four-time Academic Honor Roll member, two-time MIAA Scholar-Athlete, 2-time All-MIAA Honorable Mention and an ITA Scholar-Athlete
• Miquel Perez has gone 18-11 in singles and 20-8 in doubles while at Washburn. He earned All-MIAA Honorable Mention at No. 2 singles and All-MIAA Second Team at No. 2 doubles in 2021.
• Sebastian Pjontek is 12-6 in singles and 18-9 in doubles since joining the Ichabods in 2020. Pjontek, along with partner Eidenmueller, earned ITA All-American in doubles last season
• Miller Zeiders holds a 10-3 overall singles record and 8-6 in doubles play. He was named an ITA Scholar-Athlete in 2021
• Freshman Matthew Earle comes in with many accolades while playing for St. Michael's College. Earle helped lead the team to Leinster School Senior Champions twice and as an individual was a two-time National Doubles champion and National Grade 1 singles champion. He is 3-4 in singles and 8-3 in doubles in his first season
• Freshman Tim Hammes played No. 1 singles and doubles throughout high school while leading them to three regional championships. Hammes is 11-3 in singles play and 2-1 in doubles in 2021-22
• Noah Neideck is dominating in doubles play with a record of 6-1 along with a singles win
• Kim Niethammer holds a 6-2 singles record and Noah Neideck is 7-2 in doubles with partner Dicu and has a singles win
• Sophomore transfer Santiago Rendon, from Norfolk State, is 2-2 in singles and 4-0 in doubles play

Milestone Tracker

• Dicu's 51 career singles wins is 18th in Washburn history. He needs 6 more wins to move into the top 15 and 10 wins to be the 11th Ichabod to have 60 wins.
• Dicu is also three doubles wins from the 50 mark. 
• Tim Hammes, in just 13 matches, reached 10 wins as an Ichabod. He has a win from the top four singles spots
• Perez earned his 20th doubles win against Concordia Irvine
• Perez is two singles wins away from 20. Pjontek is two doubles wins away from 20

Washburn Notes

FOUR-TIME AOTW WINNERS

• In four straight weeks, a Washburn a men's tennis player has won MIAA Athlete of the Week in the North Division
• Hammes won week two after going 1-1 in singles along with his second doubles win of the season
• In week three, Raul-Alin Dicu wins AOTW after his performance against No. 17 Ouachita Baptist. Dicu got the first doubles match win and secured the 4-0 sweep over the Tigers with a victory in two sets against No. 17 Francisco Oliveira
• In week four, Sebastian Pjontek received the award. He went 2-0 at No. 1 doubles and 2-0 at No. 3 singles. He was huge in a tight 4-3 win over Drury
• This week, Perez posted a 2-0 doubles record and a 2-0 singles record. He finished first doubles from No. 3 both matches and defeated No. 50 Stefan Andrei at No. 4 singles

SEBO-STAR

• Sebastian Pjontek is 8-4 in singles and 9-3 at No. 1 doubles
• He is 6-2 at the three and four spots and 1-1 against ranked opponents
• As part of the 34th ranked doubles team with Earle, Pjontek has won five of his last six doubles matches

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING

• Washburn will play Azusa Pacific for the first time in program history
• The Ichabods played Concordia Irvine for the first time and won 5-2
• The Ichabods now have a 62-38 record when facing a team for the first time

ROAD TRIP

• The Ichabods at the end of a seven-match road trip where they went to Missouri, Texas and California
• Washburn will compete against two top-20 opponents
• In the last five seasons, the Ichabods are 26-18 in road/neutral matches. Washburn is 10-5 under Coach Ronning
• Washburn is 5-0 to start their road stand

Scouting the Cougars

• The Cougars were a 17-5 team in 2020-21 and advanced to the NCAA West Regional Semifinals. APU has kept up the pace this season going 8-1 to start
• Their continued success could be because they kept nine of their 11 players from last season
• The biggest lose is that of Jakob Schnaitter. He led the team with a whopping 18 wins to just one lose at No. 1 singles and went 18-3 in doubles
• Schnaitter's doubles partner Leyton Bohren did return. Bohren was 8-6 in singles last season and is 4-2 at No. 4 singles this season. He is 6-1 at No. 1 doubles with Ryan Nuno
• Nuno went 14-3 in singles and 19-3 in doubles (16-3 with Sam Sippel). This year, he is 4-3 at No. 1 singles this season and 6-1 in doubles
• Sippel went 15-2 in singles and 16-3 in doubles. In 2021-22, he is 5-2 at No. 2 singles and 5-1 in doubles with new partner Ethan Smith
• Leading the Cougars in singles wins is freshmen Elias Emilio Walter. He is 6-1 at No. 3 singles and 4-1 in doubles mostly with fellow freshmen Miha Velicki
• Velicki is 5-2 in singles and 3-2 in doubles. He is 3-1 with Walter
• Freshmen Ivan Noel Hornung has been key at the bottom of the lineup. He has a 4-2 singles record and a 1-3 doubles record

Cougars Head Coach Mark Bohren

• Mark Bohren is entering his 26th-year coaching the Cougars
• Bohren had an instrumental role in establishing the program and holds a 532-147 men's record
• A three-time nationalchampion, Bohren guided APU to the 2013 & 2014 National Christian College Athletics Association titles
• He led the program to its first undefeated regualr season in 2013 (21-0)
• When APU was a member of the NAIA, Bohren took the Cougars to an NAIA-record five straight national championship matches
• He is a two-time recipient of the NAIA Wilson/ITA Coach of the Year award (2004, 2006) and 2005 NAIA Coach of the Year
• Bohren played four season for former Cougar head coach Jack Carter and graduated with a bachelor's and master's at Azusa

Scouting the Sharks

• The Sharks were slightly over .500 at 6-5 in 2020-21 and advanced to the NCAA West Regional championship. Hawaii Pacific has started 4-0 this season, defeating No. 12 Azusa Pacific, No. 19 Biola, No. 25 Concordia Irvine, and No. 15 Hawaii Hilo in the Hawaii Invitational
• HPU'S young 2020-21 roster gets evenyounger this season. The Sharks have three players from last season's 10 men roster. Five of the seven players that did not return were freshmen or sophomores
• Freshmen standouts, Felix Einig and Kilian Matre are two of those freshmen not on the roster. Einig went 7-2 in singles and 8-2 in doubles. Maitre went 6-2 in singles and 5-5 in doubles
• Senior Cheng-Chieh Wang coming back is huge. In 2020-21, he posted a 6-4 singles record and a 7-3 doubles record. He has yetto compete this season
• The Sharks are also welcoming back Benjamin Loccisano as a graduate student. He is having a bounce back year as he is 3-0 in singles and 1-1 in doubles
• Freshmen Jan Pleva, Robin Sanz and Jordi Waller are all 4-0 in singles. Pleva and Walder in No. 1 doubles are 3-0 together. Sanz and fellow freshmen Jakub Beran are 4-0 at No. 2 doubles
• Beran is also 2-0 at No. 4 singles this season

Sharks Head Coach Hendrik Bode

• Hendrik Bode is entering his 10th season as the head men's tennis coach at Hawaii Pacific
• Bode has led the Sharks to an overall record of 149-43 and to HPU's first ever men's tennis national championship in 2016
• He is a five-time PacWest Coach of the Year (2013-17), a four-time ITA Division II West Region Coach of the Year, and was honored as the 2015 ITA Division II Coach of the Year
• Bode, originally from Lehrte, Germany, had a stellar career with Hawaii Pacific. He was a member of three NCAA National Tournament teams and helped pace the then Sea Warriors to a third place finish in 2009
• He finished his three-year career at HPU with a 39-13 overall singles record and a 45-15 doubles record. He was named ITA Senior Male Player of the Year
• Bode was a graduate assistant coach at HPU in 2010 and then was promoted to assistant coach in 2011

 Ichabods in the Rankings

• The Ichabods moved up 15 spots to No. 7 on the ITA DII National Rankings released March 10
• It is the highest rank in Washburn history
• There are six Ichabods ranked in the ITA DII National Singles and Doubles Rankings.
• Freshmen Tim Hammes ranked the highest at No. 25 with his 9-3 singles record
• Senior Raul-Alin Dicu land in the top-50, placing at No. 45 with a 6-4 singles record
• Kim Niethammer fell to No. 70 and Daniel Bird ranked tied for No. 72
• In doubles, Matthew Earle and Sebastian Pjontek with a doubles record of 6-3 ranked No. 34

Looking Ahead

The Ichabods will head back home for four home matches. Washburn plays Augustana on Friday, March 18 at1:30 p.m. at Washburn Tennis Complex.