Jan. 7, 2015
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) released its first rankings of the 2014-15 season Tuesday afternoon with the Vanderbilt Commodores premiering as the No. 19 team in the country. In addition, two Commodores were given both singles and doubles honors. Vandy is one of 16 schools with both its men and women’s programs in the Top-25.
“We are excited about the new rankings”, said head coach Ian Duvenhage. “As far as the team is concerned, it is always our goal at the very least to be in the top-20 and as such we are happy being No. 19 but we hope to move up from there.”
Gonzales Austin, a 2014 singles/doubles All-American and two-time SEC first teamer, kicks-off his senior season as the No. 10 player in the country. The Miami, Fla. native capped his fall setting Vanderbilt tennis history as he competed in the National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship finals.
After accumulating double digit wins this fall and victories over two ranked opponents, Rhys Johnson is the No. 73 singles player in the country. For two years in a row, the Perth, Australia native made it to the ITA Ohio Valley regional semifinals.
However, singles was not the last accolade Johnson and Austin received, as the doubles duo was named the No. 5 team in the country. Throughout the fall the pair defeated both the No. 3 and No. 4 ranked teams.
The SEC boasts six doubles teams in the top-25 and two doubles teams in the top-5 with Tennessee’s Hunter Reese and Mike Libietis coming in as the No. 2 team.
“We expected AJ [Austin] to be ranked higher but if you are in the top ten in the nation you have established yourself as one of the elite players in college tennis. AJ and Rhys [Johnson] had a great fall and they are very deserving of their No. 5 ranking.
The Commodores begin their season campaign at home next Friday as they take on Georgia State at 2 p.m. and Lipscomb at 5 p.m. Both competitions will feature the shortened formatting changes that the ITA passed in December.
The ITA shortened format:
-No-ad scoring in singles and doubles.
-Three doubles matches played, each match one set to 6, with a tie-break at 6-all.
– Followed (after a 5-minute intermission) by six singles matches, each match 2 out of 3 sets, with tie-breaks at 6-all.
-No warm-up with opponents (in doubles and in singles)
-This is the official format for all non-conference dual match competition with all singles matches being played to completion (doubles will remain “clinch”). It should be noted that NCAA conference rules supersede ITA rules, and therefore any conference can decide to do otherwise.
