The men’s team will feature four of the top 15 collegiate players in the country: Stephen Bass of Notre Dame, Travis Helgeson of Georgia, Todd Paul of Wake Forest and Luke Shields of Boise State. The team will be coached by USTA National Coach Kent Kinnear.

The women’s team is comprised of NCAA champion Audra Cohen of Miami, and three other players ranked among the top 10: Megan Falcon of LSU, Natalie Frazier of Georgia and Kristi Miller of Georgia Tech. The women’s will be led by North Carolina head coach Brian Kalbas.

All nominations are subject to the approval of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Bass, 22, of Bronxville, N.Y., ended his collegiate career as the No. 10 player in the country. He was recently awarded the 2007 Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s John Van Nostrand Memorial Award, given to an outstanding senior men's player who plans to pursue a professional tennis career upon graduation, and was named the ITA Senior Player of the Year for the Midwest Region. As a junior player, Bass rose to No. 11 in the USTA Boys’ 18s and reached the final of the 2003 USTA Boys’ 18s National Clay Court Championships. He is currently ranked No. 1158 in the world and reached the semifinals of the USTA Futures in Vero Beach, Fla., last month on clay.

Helgeson, 21, of Overland Park, Kan., finished his junior season ranked No. 11 in singles and No. 19 in doubles. He helped Georgia to an undefeated 32-0 season and its fifth national championship in 2007, having transferred to Georgia after playing two seasons at the University of Texas. Helgeson was named the 2007 ITA Player to Watch for the Southeast Region. He won the singles title at the 2003 USTA Boys’ 18s National Winter Championships and finished third at the 2004 Easter Bowl. He has one ATP point and is ranked No. 1505 in the world.

Paul, 21, of Stamford, Conn., was named the ITA Senior Player of the Year for the Mideast Region. Ranked No. 1 during the season, he ended the year at No. 14. Paul was a four-year letter winner at Fairfield Prep in Connecticut and was coached by Brian Barker (James Blake’s coach). He advanced to the round of 16 at the 2004 USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships before falling to eventual champion Scoville Jenkins. Paul is ranked No. 975 in the world and reached the final of the USTA Futures in Godfrey, Ill., last July.

Shields, 22, of Grand Junction, Colo., helped Boise State to a third consecutive WAC Conference championship this year as a junior and was named the 2007 WAC Player of the Year. He finished the collegiate season ranked No. 13 in the country and received the USTA Sportsmanship Award at the 2007 USTA/ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships. As a junior player, Shields won the 2002 USTA Boys’ 18s National Winter Championships in both singles and doubles, teaming with his brother, Clancy, for the latter title.

Cohen, 21, of Plantation, Fla., won Miami’s first-ever NCAA women’s singles title as a junior in May after finishing runner-up in 2005 as a freshman at Northwestern. She was the No. 1 player in the country the entire season and finished with a 42-2 singles record. Cohen led the Hurricanes to the quarterfinals of the team competition, where they fell to No. 1 Stanford. Cohen was No. 1 in both singles and doubles in the USTA Girls’ 18s, winning the 2003 USTA Girls’ 18s National Clay Court Championships and consecutive doubles titles at the event (2003 and 2004). She is ranked No. 525 in the world and won the USTA $10,000 event in Evansville, Ind., last July as an amateur.

Falcon, 21, of Alameda, Calif., finished her sophomore season ranked No. 2 in the country -- the highest individual ranking in school history. She became the first LSU women’s player to advance to the NCAA singles semifinals, where she fell to Southern Cal’s Lindsey Nelson. Falcon was named the 2007 SEC Player of the Year and the ITA National co-Player to Watch. As a junior player, Falcon was ranked as high as No. 1 in the USTA Girls’ 16s and No. 5 in the USTA Girls’ 18s. Currently unranked on the WTA Tour, Falcon earned a career high of No. 331 in February 2005.

Frazier, 22, of Riverdale, Ga., ended her collegiate career ranked No. 5 in the country. She was the ITA Senior Player of the Year for the South Region and was named SEC Tournament MVP after going undefeated (3-0 singles, 2-0 doubles) to lead Georgia to the SEC women’s tournament title. She advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA singles championships, where she lost to Falcon, and led the Bulldogs to the quarterfinals of the NCAA team championships. During her junior career, Frazier was ranked as high as No. 3 in the USTA Girls’ 16s and No. 8 in the USTA Girls’ 18s.

Miller, 21, of Marysville, Mich., led Georgia Tech to the 2007 NCAA team title and finished her junior season ranked No. 7 in singles and No. 5 in doubles. Miller won the Honda Award as the top women’s tennis player in the nation in 2006 and has been an All-American in each of her three seasons at Georgia Tech. As a junior player, Miller teamed with Cohen to win the doubles title at the 2003 USTA Girls’ 18s Clay Court Championship. Miller is ranked No. 905 in the world and reached the final of the USTA $10,000 event in Evansville, Ind., in 2005.

The Pan Am Games are held every four years in the year immediately prior to the Olympic Summer Games. This year, an estimated 5,500 athletes from 42 countries are expected to compete in 33 sports. Past tennis standouts to have represented the United States include Arthur Ashe, Althea Gibson, Luke Jensen, Patrick McEnroe, Chanda Rubin and Pam Shriver.

The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level -- from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. It owns and operates the US Open, the largest annually attended sporting event in the world, and launched the US Open Series linking 10 summer tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns the 94 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S., and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games. A not-for-profit organization with 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. For more information on the USTA, log on to www.usta.com.

For more information contact:
Tim Curry, Senior Manager, Publicity, Professional Tennis, USTA
(914) 696-7077 or curry@usta.com