The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
TCU *
No. 18 Men's Tennis Preview: No. 2 TCU (Senior Day)
04.14.2016 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns host second-ranked Horned Frogs on Senior Day at Polo Tennis Club.
WHAT: No. 18 Texas (17-8, 1-2 Big 12) welcomes No. 2 TCU (20-2, 2-0 Big 12) on Senior Day. UT senior Michael Riechmann will be recognized prior to the match.
WHEN/WHERE
No. 2 TCU at No. 18 Texas
Saturday, April 16 – 1 p.m. CT
Polo Tennis and Fitness Club
13730 West U.S. Highway 290
Austin, Texas 78737
LIVE SCORING
http://texassports.com/news/2016/4/15/mens-tennis-live-scoring-18-texas-vs-2-tcu.aspx
LAST TIME OUT
The Longhorns defeated Prairie View A&M by a 7-0 count last Sunday.
LAST MEETING AGAINST TCU
Texas fell to TCU by a 4-1 count on April 18, 2015 in Fort Worth.
ITA RANKINGS UPDATE
April 12
Texas Players
Singles
56. George Goldhoff (ranked 87th in previous week)
Doubles
59. Michael Riechmann/Adrian Ortiz
MORE ON THE LONGHORNS
Texas wraps the home stretch of the 2016 dual-match season with two more challenging conference matches against No. 2 TCU and No. 10 Texas Tech. The Big 12 Conference features all six of its men's tennis programs in the top-50 of the latest ITA team poll, including five teams among the top-20 and three among the top-10.
Texas has won 13 of its last 16 matches heading into this weekend's contest against TCU. 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 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.
Texas swept a doubleheader against No. 24 Tulsa and Incarnate Word on March 26 before adding another doubleheader sweep on Saturday (April 2) against UTSA. The Longhorns posted their second victory over a top-15 opponent last season when it knocked off No. 14 Oklahoma State, 4-0.
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 in late February at Wake Forest.
He added his second top-40 win in a month-long span when he knocked off Arkansas' 32nd-ranked Mike Redlicki. Goldhoff knocked off Oklahoma State's 59th-ranked Julian Cash last week in straight sets and vaulted 31 spots to No. 56 in this week's ITA singles rankings.
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 11-5 singles mark at Nos. 3 and 4 singles. Sophomore John Mee notched a 16-8 overall singles record last season as a freshman and holds a 5-3 mark in dual matches this season.
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 11-4 mark in dual-match play, and Scott boasts nine 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
