Frog Netters Head to Waco for Fall Opener
9/25/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Sept. 25, 2008
***TOURNAMENT DRAWS AND RESULTS
FORT WORTH--The TCU men's tennis team opens its fall season this weekend when it travels to Waco, Texas, for the annual Baylor HEB Intercollegiate Invitational, held at the Baylor Tennis Center. A group of nine Horned Frogs will make the short trip south to compete in the tournament Friday, Sept. 26 through Sunday, Sept. 28.A field of more than 100 individual entries and 19 schools are expected for the weekend, as well as 22 players among the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's (ITA) preseason singles rankings. The doubles draw will include six of the ITA's top-ranked teams.
The tournament's setup will consist of two 64-player singles draws, flights A and B, as well as a 32-team doubles draws in both flights A and B. There will be a consolation round for the flight A singles draw.
TCU Head Coach Dave Borelli's squad will compete against several of the nation's other top teams, including: Air Force, Arkansas, Baylor, Fresno State, Nevada, New Mexico State, Oklahoma State, Portland, Rice, TCU, Texas A&M, Texas A&M-CC, Texas Tech, Tulsa, ULL Lafayette, Texas, UT-Arlington, UT- San Antonio and Wichita State.
Among the Frogs scheduled to kick off their fall campaigns in Waco are: senior Kriegler Brink; juniors Mike Donovan, Kelubia Mabatah, Eric Olson and Adrian Simon; and sophomores Emanu Brighiu, Cameron Nash, Zach Nichols and Alex Panayides. Each will compete in singles play, and all but Olson will also pair up for doubles action (Brink-Nicholls, Brighiu-Simon, Mabatah-Panayides, Donovan-Nash).
Nearly the entire Frog roster returns from last season's young group that advanced to the NCAA Championships and won both the Mountain West Conference regular-season and tournament crowns.
TCU will have a large void to fill following the graduation of Cosmin Cotet, who served as the squad's top singles player in 2007-08, but eight other Frogs return, including Brink, who received the ITA's No. 93 preseason singles ranking. The team will also benefit from the addition of four off-season transfers: juniors Mabatah (Purdue) and Olson (Furman) and sophomores Nash (DePauw) and Paul Chappell (Indiana).
Players Mentioned
