June 13, 2006

CLEVELAND - Phil Orno, a native of Snekkersten, Denmark, has signed a national letter of intent to attend Cleveland State and play for the men's tennis team beginning in the fall of 2006. Head coach Brian Etzkin made the announcement on Tuesday (June 13).

A senior at Helsinger Gymnasium in Denmark, Orno currently plays for the Elsinore Tennis Club and has been ranked as high as seventh nationally as a junior player by the Danish Tennis Association. He is no stranger to tennis in the United States, going 27-1 and finishing third at the state championships his junior season for Parma High School as a foreign exchange student.

"I am very excited to have Phil play his college tennis at CSU," Etzkin said. "He got a taste of the Cleveland area while he was a foreign exchange student and is elated to come back to his adopted home town. He was one of the top players in the state as a junior and has continued to improve since then."

Orno and Ryan Hamning, who signed during the early signing period last fall, make up a strong recruiting class that will join a men's tennis team that placed third at the Horizon League Championships in 2006.