The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Bryant (NCAA Championships First Round)
No. 11 Men’s Tennis Preview: NCAA Championships First and Second Rounds
05.06.2018 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns take on Northeast Conference champion Bryant in opening round.
NCAA Championships bracket
2018 NCAA Championships First and Second Rounds
Texas Tennis Center – Austin, Texas
Friday, May 11
California (11-9) vs. N.C. State (17-8) – 1 p.m. (South Courts)
Bryant (14-15) vs. Texas (17-6) – 4 p.m. (North Courts)
Saturday, May 12
First round winners – 3 p.m.
Live Scoring
http://sidearmstats.com/texas/mtennis/xlive.htm
Live Video
www.hookem.at/WatchTennis
Tickets
$5 for adults/$3 for youth
Parking: Available in East Campus Garage adjacent to UFCU Disch-Falk Field for $5; payment is made via cash or credit card at the garage exit (Area Map).
Big 12 tournament champion Texas has earned a No. 11 national seed and hosting duties for NCAA Championships first- and second-round matches this week in Austin.
The Longhorns will meet Northeast Conference champion Bryant on Friday, May 11 with first serve set for 4 p.m. CT at Texas Tennis Center. N.C. State and California will meet in the other first-round match on May 11 at 1 p.m. CT.
The first-round winners go head-to-head on Saturday, May 12 at 3 p.m. CT. The second-round winner advances to the NCAA round of 16 the following week in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY
The Longhorns earn their 27th consecutive bid to the NCAA Championships and their 36th overall selection since the NCAA bracketed tournament was introduced in 1977. Texas holds a 55-35 record at the NCAA Championships in the current bracketed format.
Texas hosts the opening rounds of the NCAA Championships for a second straight year and for the fourth time in the last five years. UT defeated Presbyterian in the opening round a year ago before edging Tulane in a second-round thriller at Caswell Tennis Center. The Longhorns went on to knock Baylor out of the round of 16 before falling to eventual NCAA champion Virginia in the quarterfinals.
Texas' top finishes at the NCAA Championships came in 1955 and 2008 as the national runner-up.
LONGHORNS IN THE ITA RANKINGS (May 3)
Doubles
12. Rodrigo Banzer/Leonardo Telles
Singles
52. Yuya Ito
89. Harrison Scott
93. Leonardo Telles
104. Rodrigo Banzer
110. Christian Sigsgaard
TEXAS TRIO EARNS NCAA SINGLES AND DOUBLES BIDS
The NCAA announced May 2 the selection of Texas juniors Rodrigo Banzer and Leonardo Telles into the 32-team doubles draw and the selection of UT sophomore Yuya Ito into the 64-player singles draw contested at the NCAA Championships. Competition begins May 23 at Wake Forest University. The first-round pairings will be released later this month.
Banzer and Telles rank 10th in the latest ITA doubles rankings and have been featured among the top-10 throughout the dual-match season. The Texas tandem, who reached the semifinals at the ITA National Fall Championships, holds a 20-11 overall doubles record
Ito qualifies for the NCAA singles draw for a second straight year after earning All-America honors a year ago as a freshman. Ito secured an automatic All-America honor by winning a pair of matches and reaching the third round of the NCAA singles draw last season.
LONGHORNS CLAIM BIG 12 TOURNAMENT TITLE
Second-seeded Texas dropped the doubles point but put forth a formidable singles effort that was enough to surpass fifth-seeded Baylor in the finals of the Big 12 Championship. UT prevailed by a 4-2 count and won its fifth Big 12 tournament title and first since 2010. Longhorns All-America sophomore Yuya Ito was selected as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
SIGSGAARD SELECTED AS BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
The Big 12 Conference announced April 17 the selection of Texas sophomore Christian Sigsgaard as the league's Men's Tennis Player of the Week.
Sigsgaard swept his singles matches and helped Texas to home wins over No. 11 Oklahoma State and No. 14 Oklahoma. He Sigsgaard teamed with UT junior Harrison Scott for the first time all season in doubles and posted a pair of wins, which included a victory over OU's 61st-ranked tandem of Adrian Oetzbach and Ferran Calvo.
EIGHT STRAIGHT FOR ORTIZ
Redshirt junior Adrian Ortiz takes an eight-match winning streak and a 12-2 dual-match record into the NCAA Championships. He began his streak back on March 6 with a three-set win over Pennsylvania's Aleks Huryn.
Ortiz added a three-set win over USC's Jake DeVine and a straight-sets victory over Tulsa's Boriss Kamdem before posting a 6-4, 6-4 result over TCU's Bertus Kruger. He clinched the Longhorns' win over Oklahoma with his 6-4, 6-2 victory over the Sooners' Max Stewart. Ortiz posted a straight-sets win over Texas Tech's Artem Kapshuk last Thursday in Lubbock. Ortiz clinched the Horns' 4-0 win at Baylor with his 6-4, 6-4 victory over Roy Smith.
SCOTT EARNS BIG 12 HONOR
The Big 12 Conference announced March 6 the selection of Texas junior Harrison Scott as the league's Men's Tennis Player of the Week.
Scott clinched both of Texas' big road wins at No. 16 North Carolina State and No. 6 North Carolina. Scott snapped North Carolina's 29-match home winning streak that spanned nearly two full seasons with his thrilling 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3 win over the Heels' 105th-ranked Robert Kelly at third singles.
Two days earlier, the junior from Calgary, Alberta nailed down UT's 4-1 win over the 16th-ranked Wolfpack in Raleigh with his 7-6 (5), 2-6, 7-5 victory over Igor Saveljic at third singles.
TEXAS TWO-STEPS THROUGH THE TAR HEEL STATE
The Longhorns headed to North Carolina to take on stiff competition in the form of No. 16 North Carolina State and No. 6 North Carolina (March 2 & 4). Texas came home with a pair of momentous victories over the Wolfpack and Tar Heels on their respective home courts.
UT dropped the doubles point for only the third time against N.C. State, but the Longhorns ran off four consecutive wins on the Wolfpack's indoor courts to close out a 4-1 win.
Texas took a different path to victory in the match at North Carolina. Headlined by a win from Leonardo Telles and Rodrigo Banzer over UNC's sixth-ranked tandem of William Blumberg and Robert Kelly, UT took the doubles point from the Tar Heels.
The two sides went back and forth in singles until the match knotted at three. Just as he did at N.C. State, Texas junior Harrison Scott provided the match clincher once more at UNC. The Canadian finished off the 105th-ranked Kelly to seal the Longhorns' 4-3 win. It marked Texas' first victory over a top-10 team since the Horns knocked off seventh-seeded Baylor in the third round of the 2017 NCAA Championships.
The victories placed Texas back in the top-10 of the ITA team poll for the first time since Jan. 24.
ITO EARNS SECOND BIG 12 WEEKLY HONOR
The Big 12 Conference announced Feb. 27 the selection of Texas All-America sophomore Yuya Ito as the league's Men's Tennis Player of the Week. Ito earned his second selection of the season after receiving the honor on Feb. 13.
Ito registered his second win of the season over a ranked opponent in UT's win over Georgia Tech. He made short work of Georgia Tech's 41st-ranked Carlos Divar and prevailed 6-1, 6-2 as the Longhorns knocked off the Yellow Jackets, 5-2.
LONGHORNS POST FIRST WIN AT TEXAS TENNIS CENTER
Texas notched its first team victory at its new Texas Tennis Center on Jan. 28 when it knocked off Tennessee in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend event. The Longhorns won the doubles point and added singles wins from Rodrigo Banzer, Yuya Ito and the clincher from Adrian Ortiz, as Texas dealt the visiting Volunteers a 4-1 defeat.
BANZER SELECTED AS BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
The Big 12 Conference announced the selection of Texas junior Rodrigo Banzer as the league's first Men's Tennis Player of the Week for the 2018 season (Jan. 16).
Banzer went 6-0 in singles and doubles and won the individual championship at the Longhorn Invitational. Points were awarded for each singles and doubles win depending on their opponent's position in their lineup, and Banzer won the individual championship with room to spare.
Banzer, a native of La Paz, Bolivia, did not yield a set while winning his three singles matches. He improved to an impressive 15-3 at the time in doubles alongside Leonardo Telles with three more doubles wins, which included a top-40 victory over Vanderbilt's 36th-ranked tandem of Lachlan McPhee and Billy Rowe.
