The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
UTSA
No. 21 Men’s Tennis Preview: UTSA
03.31.2016 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns welcome Roadrunners for day-night doubleheader Saturday at Polo Tennis Club.
WHAT: No. 21 Texas (13-6) closes out its five-match home stand this weekend when it hosts UTSA in a day-night doubleheader.
WHEN
UTSA at No. 21 Texas
Saturday, April 2 – 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
WHERE
Polo Tennis Club
13730 West U.S. Highway 290
Austin, Texas 78737
LAST TIME OUT
The Longhorns knocked off Tulsa (4-2) and Incarnate Word (6-1) last Saturday (March 26) in Austin.
ITA RANKINGS UPDATE
March 22
Texas Players
Singles
113. Harrison Scott
Doubles
61. Michael Riechmann/Adrian Ortiz
MORE ON THE LONGHORNS
Texas has won nine of its last 10 matches heading into Saturday's doubleheader against the Roadrunners.
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 earlier this month with its victories over UTSA, Louisiana and Southern Mississippi at the H-E-B Tournament of Champions in Corpus Christi. The Horns notched another key road win on March 13 with the victory at San Diego, which ended the Toreros' 23-match home winning streak.
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. He added his second top-40 win in a month on Wednesday night when he knocked off Arkansas' 32nd-ranked Mike Redlicki.
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 9-3 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 8-3 start in dual-match play, and Scott boasts eight 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
