Oct. 18, 2012
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt men’s tennis will be in action Oct. 19-23 at the USTA/ITA Regional Championships in Memphis, Tenn., at the Racquet Club of Memphis.
The USTA/ITA Regional Championships feature some of the top men’s players from across the country. More than 8,000 student-athletes from NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA and the NJCAA level compete at one of the 87 USTA/ITA Regional Championships held across the country.
Vanderbilt Head Coach Ian Duvenhage has seen improvements in his team since the last outing at the ITA All-American.
“Everyone is playing better tennis now than earlier in the semester,” Duvenhage explained. “AJ (Gonzales) Austin is playing exceptional tennis and Ryan Lipman has stepped it up since the All-Americans. Rhys Johnson and Jeff Offerdahl are playing better and Michael Retta is starting to be competitive on a consistent basis. Kris Yee is much more of a match player than a practice player and I look for him again to step it up as he did at the Southern Collegiates and the All-Americans.”
This season, Vanderbilt will participate in the Ohio Valley Regional. More than 20 teams will be represented at the regional, with familiar schools such as: Belmont, Chattanooga, East Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky, Lipscomb, Louisville, Memphis, Middle Tennessee, Tennessee, Tennessee Tech and many others.
Retta will get play started for the Commodores on Friday afternoon at approximately 2 p.m. Retta will face Xavier’s Michael Moe in his first round matchup.
Austin, Johnson, Lipman, Offerdahl and Yee all received first round byes and will wait until Saturday to play their first singles matches of the tournament.
For doubles action, Vanderbilt’s teams will be Austin and Offerdahl, Retta and Yee and Johnson and Lipman. Retta and Yee will compete against Dayton’s Devin Jones and Aidan Koross Friday morning at 8:30 a.m.
The two other duos received first round byes and will begin competition late Friday morning.
This weekend’s play will be the final action for the Commodores during the fall season, so Coach Duvenhage wants to see some tough play from his team.
“I know that we can play; we have to get better at handling the ups and downs that inevitably go along with competition,” Duvenhage explained. “We are a young team but we’ll need to grow up quickly. We still have a tendency to get down when things don’t go our way.”
To see the complete draws, please click the link here:http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=133269.
Vanderbilt will begin dual competition on Jan. 18, when the Commodores host Butler at 4 p.m. at the Currey Tennis Center.
