The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
San Diego
No. 19 Men’s Tennis Preview: San Diego
03.12.2016 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns complete road swing this weekend at San Diego.
WHAT: No. 19 Texas (10-5) ends its month-long road swing this weekend when it visits No. 29 San Diego (9-5). The host Toreros bring a 23-match home winning streak into Sunday's contest.
WHEN/WHERE
No. 19 Texas at No. 29 San Diego
Sunday, March 13, 2 p.m. CT (noon PT)
Hogan Tennis Center – San Diego, California
LAST TIME OUT
Texas notched three wins in two days and won the H-E-B Tournament of Champions in Corpus Christi (March 4-5). The Longhorns defeated UTSA and Louisiana on the tournament's opening day before shutting out Southern Mississippi (4-0) in the finals.
ITA RANKINGS UPDATE
Despite its three wins last week, Texas dropped four spots to No. 19 in the latest ITA team rankings released Tuesday (March 8).
Sophomore Harrison Scott re-entered the ITA singles rankings this week at No. 112, and junior George Goldhoff earned his first singles ranking of the dual-match season at No. 114.
Senior Michael Riechmann and sophomore Adrian Ortiz are featured at No. 56 in the latest ITA doubles rankings.
MORE ON THE LONGHORNS
Texas brings a six-match win streak – with five of the wins at road or neutral sites - into Sunday's match at San Diego.
The Horns wiped out a 3-1 deficit against Stanford and put away a 4-3 win over the Cardinal on Feb. 7. Texas sophomore Adrian Ortiz saved a match point against him and won a tiebreaker against the Cardinal's Nolan Paige to cap the Texas rally.
Two weeks later, Texas made short work of Rice and shut out the Owls by a 4-0 count in Houston. The following weekend, Texas rallied from a 3-1 deficit to post a thrilling 4-3 win at No. 5 Wake Forest behind three third-set tiebreak wins.
Texas stretched its winning streak to six matches last weekend with its aforementioned victories over UTSA, Louisiana and Southern Mississippi at the H-E-B Tournament of Champions in Corpus Christi.
Along with the aforementioned Riechmann, Texas welcomes four additional veterans from the 2015 squad that posted a 21-7 record and finished the season ranked ninth nationally.
George Goldhoff posted a 17-10 singles mark, including an 8-6 record in dual matches last season as a sophomore, and he scored his first ranked win of the season last month at Wake Forest.
Sophomore Adrian Ortiz went 3-2 in dual-match play last season, and redshirt sophomore William Jou added three singles wins as a freshman. Ortiz is off to a fine start in 2016 with his 7-3 singles mark at Nos. 3 and 4 singles. Sophomore John Mee notched a 16-8 overall singles record last season as a freshman.
UT also welcomes redshirt freshman Julian Zlobinsky and freshmen Rodrigo Banzer, Johnny Goodwin, Colin Markes, the aforementioned Harrison Scott and Leonardo Telles.
Banzer made his collegiate debut during the ITA Kick-Off Weekend event against Florida and clinched the win at No. 5 Wake Forest. Zlobinsky is off to an impressive 7-2 start in dual-match play, and Scott boasts seven dual-match wins at No. 2 singles.
Michael Center returns for his 16th season at the helm of the Texas men's tennis program. The four-time Big 12 Coach of the Year led the Longhorns to their second-straight top-10 final ranking last season as Texas reached the round of 16 at the 2015 NCAA Championships.
A pair of Center's pupils reached the pinnacle of their sport last May when Soren Hess-Olesen and Lloyd Glasspool won the first NCAA doubles title for Texas since 1944.
Center turned to a pair of familiar faces to fill the vacancies on his coaching staff. Bruce Berque, who served as a volunteer coach at Texas last season, is in his first season as an associate head coach under Center.
Berque filled the position previously held by longtime associate head coach Ricardo Rubio, who accepted his first head coaching position last summer with The University of Denver men's tennis program.
Berque served 10 seasons (2004-14) as the head men's tennis coach at Michigan and led the Wolverines to the NCAA Championships in his final nine seasons in Ann Arbor. He helped the Illinois men to the 2003 NCAA title during his six-season stint (1999-2004) as an associate head coach for the Fighting Illini.
Chris Camillone, a former ITA doubles All-American at Texas, is in his first season with the Longhorns as a volunteer assistant coach.
Players Mentioned
