The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Tulane
No. 6 Men’s Tennis preview: at Tulane
02.26.2021 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns begin a three-match road stretch in New Orleans on Saturday at 12 p.m. CT.
No. 6 Men's Tennis preview: at Tulane
When: Sat., Feb. 27, 2021, 12 p.m. CT
Where: City Park Tennis Center, New Orleans, La.
Live Video: N/A
Live Stats: N/A (Periodic updates will be poster at @GreenWaveMTenn on Twitter)
Team Records: Texas (8-3, 0-0 Big 12), Tulane (6-3, 0-0 AAC)
Notes
-Tulane Series: Texas leads, 6-1
Texas and Tulane have met seven times since 1975 with six of those coming in Austin, along with three in the last four years in 2017, '18 and '20. The teams were scheduled to play in 2019 in New Orleans, but the match was canceled due to weather-related issues. Last season, the teams played out their match in singles with the Longhorns taking a 5-2 win.
The Green Wave won the previous match, 4-0, in Austin in 2018, while the one before that was also in Austin, but in the NCAA Tournament and was a 4-3 win by the Longhorns. The first four contests were also won by Texas and took place in 1989 (8-0 in Austin), '90 (9-0 in New Orleans), '95 (4-2 in Austin) and '96 (5-2 in Austin).
Last Meeting
No. 3 Texas 5, No. 43 Tulane 2
Fri., Mar. 6, 2020 • Texas Tennis Center • Austin, Texas
Singles – Order of Finish (2,5,3,6,4,1)
1. No. 72 Ewan Moore (TLN) def. No. 6 Christian Sigsgaard (UT), 4-6, 7-6 (8), 1-0 (4)
2. No. 2 Yuya Ito (UT) def. No. 50 Hamish Stewart (TLN), 6-4, 6-1
3. No. 44 Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Luis Erlenbusch (TLN), 6-3, 6-4
4. Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. Dane Esses (TLN), 6-3, 7-6 (9)
5. Chih Chi Huang (UT) def. Tim Ruetzel (TLN), 6-0, 6-2
6. Akos Kotorman (TLN) def. Cleeve Harper (UT), 6-2, 7-5
Doubles – Order of Finish (1,2)
1. No. 9 Yuya Ito/Christian Sigsgaard (UT) def. Hamish Stewart/Akos Kotorman (TLN), 6-3
2. Jacob Bullard/Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. Benji Jacobson/Ewan Moore (TLN), 6-3
3. Cleeve Harper/Chih Chi Huang (UT) vs. Luis Erlenbusch/Dane Esses (TLN), 5-3, unf.
-Texas vs Tulane in 2021 tournament play
N/A
-Ranked No. 6
Texas is ranked No. 6 in the latest Oracle/Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Rankings released Feb. 24 by the ITA. It marks the 28th-straight week the Longhorns have been ranked in the top 10 dating back to the beginning of the 2019 season, including 24 of those in the top six.
-ITA Individual National Rankings (Jan. 13)
Texas
Singles
No. 57 Siem Woldeab
No. 78 Micah Braswell
No. 120 Eliot Spizzirri
Doubles
t-No. 43 Payton Holden/Siem Woldeab
Newcomers
No. 5 Micah Braswell
Tulane
Singles
No. 40 Hamish Stewart
No. 53 Ewan Moore
Doubles
N/A
-Topping No. 1 at ITA Indoors
Texas made its third-straight trip to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships from Feb. 12-14, facing three top 10 teams and coming away with a 4-3 win over No. 1 USC on Feb. 13. The Longhorns overcame a 3-0 deficit to the Trojans with four singles wins, three of which went to three sets. The Horns almost pulled off an even more impressive comeback the next day against No. 10 Tennessee, having dropped the doubles point and all six first sets in singles, but came up just short, 4-2, with the clinching match going to 7-5 in the third set and leading 3-1 in the third set of the remaining match. In their opening match against No. 4 Baylor, the Longhorns fell, 4-0, but earned a win over the No. 10 doubles pair in the country and had leads in the ongoing sets of the three unfinished matches with the first sets of two of them going to the Bears in tiebreakers.
-Doubleheader Sweep Over UIW and Texas A&M-CC
Heading into the ITA Indoors, the Longhorns swept a doubleheader against UIW (6-1) and Texas A&M-Corpus Chrisiti (5-0) on Feb. 6. Eliot Spizzirri, Micah Braswell and Cleeve Harper all earned two singles wins for the day, while Leighton Allen earned his first college singles win in dual match play against TAMCC.
-Splitting a Back-to-Back Versus No. 6 Baylor and Arizona State
In back-to-back matches on January 30-31, Texas lost a tight contest to No. 6 Baylor, 4-1, but rebounded the next day to defeat Arizona State, 4-3. The match against Baylor was closer than the score with the Bears winning the last match in three sets and the Longhorns leading and tied in the two remaining singles matches when play stopped, while the match against the Sun Devils was clinched at 4-1 before the teams played out the last two matches. Texas gave Baylor its first doubles point loss of the season and then used four singles wins over Arizona State.
-Three Straight Trips to ITA National Team Indoor Championships
Texas earned its third straight trip to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships by defeating Liberty (4-1) and No. 9 Florida (4-3) in the Austin ITA Kickoff Weekend on Jan. 22-23. In a rollercoaster of a day against Florida that involved multiple weather delays and a late location change, the Longhorns persevered and topped the Gators on the strength of singles wins from Cleeve Harper, Chih Chi Huang, Siem Woldeab and finally Eliot Spizzirri over No. 8 Sam Riffice in three sets. The ITA Indoors will take place from February 12-14 in Champaign, Ill.
-Completing a Back-to-Back Sweep Against SMU
The Longhorns posted their second 7-0 sweep in as many days as they down SMU by that score at the Texas Tennis Center on Jan. 16. Texas didn't drop a set to the Mustangs and only left one doubles match unfinished at 3-3.
-Season Opening Sweep Over Louisiana
Texas opened its 2021 dual match season with a 7-0 sweep of Louisiana at the Texas Tennis Center on Jan. 15. The Longhorns won all six singles matches on the day with four in straight sets and two that ended in third-set superbreakers. They also took two out of three doubles matches.
-Bama Spring Shootout
The Longhorns headed to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to open spring play in a tournament that was originally scheduled to host individual play between Texas, Alabama and Mississippi State. However, after Mississippi State withdrew, members of Texas and Alabama faced off with the Longhorns winning four out of five titles, including sweeping all 10 doubles matches played on the second day. All three singles champions for the Longhorns in Eliot Spizzirri, Micah Braswell and Leighton Allen posted perfect 3-0 records.
Texas Singles Champions
Flight 1 – Eliot Spizzirri, Micah Braswell (co)
Flight 3 – Leighton Allen
Texas Doubles Champions
Flight 1 – Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab
Flight 2 – Micah Braswell/Cleeve Harper
-ITA Texas Region Rookie of the Year
Sophomore Siem Woldeab was honored as the ITA Texas Region Rookie of the Year in May after he posted a 21-10 overall record in singles, including 11-3 in dual matches, stepping into the starting lineup for a defending National Champion Texas team and playing mostly at No. 3. He registered a high singles ranking of 37 and a high doubles ranking of 11 during the year and collected eight wins over ranked opponents in singles, including four against the top 40, two in the top 17 and one over teammate Yuya Ito in the championship match of his first collegiate tournament at the Gamecock Fall Invitational. He then paired with Ito to win the doubles title at the same tournament, and later paired with Christian Sigsgaard to win the doubles title of the Southern Intercollegiate Championships. In dual match play, Woldeab clinched matches against No. 43 Tulane, Nebraska and Tulsa. In the first dual match of his career on the road at No. 1 Florida, he played No. 3 singles and downed No. 17 Duarte Vale in straight sets to secure the team's first point in a 5-2 win. Woldeab won his last six singles matches of the season, including against opponents on two top-10 teams in No. 8 Stanford and No. 9 NC State. Woldeab has started this dual match season 3--4 in singles, including a straight sets win over No. 12 Duarte Vale of ninth-ranked Florida, while also leading No. 24 Adam Walton of Tennessee in an unfinished match and tied with No. 46 Adrian Boitan of Baylor in the third set of another.
-Spizzirri Out of the Gate
So far in his early career as a Longhorn, sophomore Eliot Spizzirri has had an excellent start, registering a 27-6 singles record that includes an 19-3 mark in dual match play. In 2021, he is 8-2 in dual match singles play and clinched a 4-3 win for the team over No. 9 Florida by downing No. 8 Sam Riffice in three sets. He later helped Texas to a victory over No. 1 USC with a win over No. 19 Riley Smith. In his first collegiate dual match he opened with a win over No. 72 Andy Andrade at No. 1 Florida to help Texas to a win last year. He had joined the team in January and made an immediate impact, playing primarily the No. 4 spot in the lineup. In tournament play in this season, he recorded a 7-1 record in singles. Recently he claimed the co-championship of the top flight in singles and the championship of the top flight of doubles with Siem Woleab at the Bama Spring Shootout. He has an 23-15 overall career record in doubles to this point.
-And Here Comes Braswell
True freshman Micah Braswell posted a 12-1 singles record in his first action as a Longhorn this fall, on his way to winning the championship of the Lakes Tennis Invite and co-championships of the TCU Invite and the Big 6 Fall Invite. That included wins over players in the last rankings of last season: No. 48 Parker Wynn, No. 77 Luc Fomba, No. 87 Ilgiz Valiev, No. 104 Mason Beiler and No. 107 Charlie Broom. He followed that up with a 3-0 start to spring play at the Bama Spring Shootout to earn the co-championship with teammate Eliot Spizzirri, along with dual match wins against Louisiana, SMU and Liberty before dropping his first against No. 85 Andy Andrade of No. 9 Florida. He's now 23-2 overall in singles play, including a dual match singles win over No. 104 Stefan Dostanic in Texas' victory over No. 1 USC, along with holding third-set leads when play stopped in two unfinished matches against No. 43 Sven Lah of Baylor.
-Defending National Champions (Still)
Without the NCAA Tournament being played last year, the Longhorns enter the season still as the defending National Champions. Juniors Chih Chi Huang and Nevin Arimilli and redshirt sophomore Cleeve Harper are the lone members remaining from the title team with an influx of new faces arriving since that time. Head coach Bruce Berque enters his third season after guiding Texas to its first team championship in school history.
-Simply the Best
This season Texas will be without two of its staples from the last four years that included a run to the program's first team National Championship in Yuya Ito and Christian Sigsgaard. Both players rank in the top 10 in all-time singles wins at Texas with Ito fifth (111) and Sigsgaard seventh (105) and would have been eligible to return, however Sigsgaard chose to begin his career in professional tennis, while Ito accepted a job opportunity in Japan.
Ito posted overall career marks of 111-34 (.766) in singles and 79-36 (.687) in doubles, including dual match records of 66-18 (.786) in singles and 48-27 (.640) in doubles. He was on pace to set the UT record for career singles victories had his final season not been cut short. His overall .766 career singles winning percentage is the best among the 22 players who have 90 victories or more. Ito was just the third three-time singles All-American (2017, '19, '20) in program history since separate singles and doubles honors began to be recognized in 1979. He finished in the top 10 of the ITA final singles rankings in both of the last two years at No. 8 in 2019 and No. 2 in 2020. He also paired with Christian Sigsgaard to rank as high as No. 4 in doubles in 2020.
Sigsgaard posted overall career marks of 105-41 (.719) in singles and 78-33 (.703) in doubles, including dual match records of 53-28 (.654) in singles and 51-21 (.708) in doubles. He departed Texas with three ITA All-America honors, earning them in singles in 2019 and 2020, and in doubles in 2019. He placed in the top 10 of the ITA final rankings in singles and doubles both of those years, finishing at No. 6 in singles in 2019 and 2020 and in doubles in 2019, along with No. 9 in doubles in 2020.
-Year Four at the Texas Tennis Center
Texas has begun its fourth season of play at the Texas Tennis Center and with a 7-1 mark in 2021 has compiled a 41-4 overall record, including a 9-0 mark in a shortened season in 2020 that featured wins against No. 8 Stanford, No. 18 Georgia and No. 21 Florida State. The Longhorns finished 2019 with a 15-1 mark there, including wins over No. 1 Ohio State, No. 6 Baylor and No. 12 Columbia, along with three NCAA Tournament victories. The lone loss came to No. 15 USC. During its inaugural season, Texas posted a 10-2 record, including winning the 2018 Big 12 Tournament.
Players Mentioned
