The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Oklahoma State *
No. 17 Men’s Tennis Preview: No. 12 Oklahoma State, No. 9 Oklahoma
04.07.2016 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns host key conference matches against the Cowboys and Sooners.
WHAT: No. 17 Texas (15-7, 0-1 Big 12) continues conference play this weekend with a pair of key matches against No. 12 Oklahoma State (16-3, 0-0 Big 12) and No. 9 Oklahoma (11-7, 0-0 Big 12). UT also will take on Prairie View A&M on Sunday after the Oklahoma match.
WHEN/WHERE
No. 12 Oklahoma State at No. 17 Texas
Friday, April 8 – 6 p.m. CT
No. 9 Oklahoma at No. 17 Texas
Sunday, April 10 – 1 p.m. CT
Prairie View A&M at No. 17 Texas
Sunday, April 10 – 5 p.m. CT
All remaining home matches will be contested at Polo Tennis and Fitness Club.
Address
Polo Tennis & Fitness Club
13730 West U.S. Highway 290
Austin, Texas 78737
LIVE SCORING
Live scoring links will be available at TexasSports.com prior to each match.
LAST TIME OUT
The Longhorns suffered a 4-2 defeat to Baylor Tuesday evening in Waco.
LAST MEETINGS AGAINST OKLAHOMA STATE AND OKLAHOMA
Texas defeated Oklahoma State by a 4-3 count on March 27, 2015 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Oklahoma defeated Texas, 4-3 in the semifinals of the 2015 Big 12 Championships.
ITA RANKINGS UPDATE
April 5
Texas Players
Singles
87. George Goldhoff
Doubles
68. Michael Riechmann/Adrian Ortiz
86. George Goldhoff/Julian Zlobinsky
MORE ON THE LONGHORNS
Texas heads down the home stretch of the 2016 dual-match season with a challenging slate of conference matches. 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.
Texas takes on more than half of its conference schedule this week alone. The Horns opened conference play with its Tuesday evening match at Baylor and host two of its three home conference matches this weekend.
Texas has won 11 of its last 13 matches heading into this weekend's matches. 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.
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.
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 11-4 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 10-4 start 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
