Jan. 26, 2012
The Vanderbilt men’s tennis team travels to Malibu, California to take part in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend on Pepperdine’s campus, as four ranked college teams face each other in one of the big ITA spring events.
No. 36 Vanderbilt will face No.49 BYU on Friday at 2:00 p.m. local time. Depending on the outcome of their match and the match at 10:00 a.m., the Dores could face either No. 12 Pepperdine, or No. 59 Cal Poly on Saturday.
“Especially for our younger guys, it’s another new experience, and we get a chance to see how they can handle it,” said Head Coach Ian Duvenhage of his freshmen-heavy team. “We have a great opportunity. I think our players are looking forward to the opportunity, so I think when you’re excited to play and enthusiastic to play, good things usually come from it. ”
The Dores have played one match so far this season, beating the MTSU Blue Raiders 6-1 on Vanderbilt’s home courts in their first outing. Freshman Gonzales Austin clinched that win, with senior Charlie Jones leading the charge, winning straight sets in the No. 1 position.
“We’re not going there at full strength, and as far as I’m concerned we’ve got no pressure on us,” said Duvenhage. “We’ve got everything to gain and nothing to lose. So I’m really looking for them to play with a great deal of freedom and just go out there and swing for the fences and see what we can accomplish.”
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Schedule of Play: |
Fri, Jan 27 – 10am (1v4) |
Surface: Outdoors (Ralphs Strauss Tennis Center)
Number of Courts: 9
Practice Courts: Thursday, January 26th – 2pm-6pm
Back-Up: 10 Courts, on campus