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No. 9 Men’s Tennis preview: vs. No. 1 USC - NCAA Quarterfinals
05.17.2014 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns face No. 1 USC in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Sunday in Athens, Georgia.
NCAA Men's Tennis Championship - Quarterfinals
Athens, Ga. • Dan Magill Tennis Complex
Tournament Central
NCAA Bracket • PDF
Live Scoring
Texas Season Stats: HTML | PDF
• #1 USC vs. #9 Texas - 11 a.m. CT
• #4 Virginia vs. #5 Baylor - 11 a.m. CT
• #2 Oklahoma vs. #7 North Carolina - 3 p.m. CT
• #3 Ohio State vs. #6 UCLA - 3 p.m. CT
Texas in the NCAA Championship
• Texas faces top-seeded USC on Sunday in the NCAA Championship Quarterfinals (11 a.m. CT).
• The Longhorns advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2009 with a 4-1 win over Cal in the round of 16 on Friday. It is UT's 11th quarterfinal appearance since 1977.
• Head coach Michael Center is 3-0 in NCAA quarterfinal matches at UT, guiding the Longhorns to two semifinals (2006, 2009) and one final (2008).
• USC is just the second overall No. 1 seed Texas has faced since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1999 (2005 at Baylor - L, 4-1).
• As the No. 9 seed in the NCAA Championship, Texas hosted the first two rounds in Austin and advanced by defeating Marist (4-0) in the first round and No. 18 Mississippi State (4-1) in the second round. UT improved to 20-0 in NCAA Championship matches played in Austin and capped off a perfect 13-0 record at home this season.
• The Longhorns hold a 48-31 record in the NCAA Championship since 1977.
• Texas is in its 23rd consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championship.
Series info
• USC leads the all-time series with Texas, 20-6.
• The teams have met seven times in the NCAA Championship since 1977, including three times in the quarterfinals. USC won the seven previous matches in NCAA postseason play.
• Last season, then-No. 17 Texas traveled to Los Angeles to face then-No. 2 USC on Feb. 1, 2013. The Trojans defeated the Longhorns, 7-0.
Texas at a Glance
• Texas (23-5, 4-1 Big 12) won a share of the Big 12 regular season title with a 4-1 record in conference play this season. All three teams that shared the Big 12 title advanced to the NCAA Championship Quarterfinals -- Texas, Baylor and Oklahoma.
• UT features the Big 12 Conference Player of the Year (Søren Hess-Olesen) and co-Coach of the Year (Michael Center).
• Søren Hess-Olesen (No. 1 singles) and Nick Naumann (No. 5 singles) both went undefeated (5-0) during Big 12 Conference singles play this season.
• The ninth-ranked Longhorns have been among the top-10 in the ITA Rankings in 11 of the last 12 polls.
• Texas features three nationally-ranked singles players (No. 16 Søren Hess-Olesen, No. 40 Lloyd Glasspool, No. 102 George Goldhoff) and one ranked doubles team (No. 16 Lloyd Glasspool / Søren Hess-Olesen). Hess-Olesen and Glasspool will compete in the NCAA individual singles draw and doubles draw as a duo.
• Søren Hess-Olesen was given the ITA Texas Region Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship & Leadership Award and George Goldhoff was named the ITA Texas Region Rookie Player of the Year.
• The Longhorns advanced to the quarterfinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in February.
• Two current Longhorns are ITA All-Americans -- Søren Hess-Olesen (2013 NCAA Singles quarterfinalist) and David Holiner (2013 NCAA Doubles finalist).
• The NCAA Championship first and second rounds in Austin last week marked the final tennis matches played at UT's home courts -- the 28-year-old Penick-Allison Tennis Center. Construction for UT Austin's new Dell Medical School campus will displace Penick-Allison Tennis Center in June.
