Frogs Wrap Up Regular Season this Weekend
4/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 8, 2009
FORT WORTH--The No. 45 TCU men's tennis team wraps up the two-week period of Mountain West Conference play this weekend, when it travels to San Diego, Calif., for three matches on the campus of San Diego State. All matches will be held at SDSU's Aztec Tennis Center.
The Horned Frogs begin the weekend by facing No. 41 New Mexico at 11 a.m. CDT Thursday, followed by another 11 a.m. match Friday against host San Diego State, which owns a No. 38 national ranking. The stretch concludes with a 10 a.m. Saturday matchup with Air Force.
TCU enters the weekend with an 8-10 overall record after a 2-1 showing last week in its opening three matches of MWC play. The Frogs downed BYU and UNLV last Thursday and Friday, respectively, before suffering a 5-2 loss to No. 46 Utah Saturday on its home courts.
TCU has five of the Mountain West Conference's six entries in the ITA's latest national individual ratings. Three Frogs appear in the singles ranks in No. 62 Slah Mbarek, No. 76 Kriegler Brink and No. 110 Emanuel Brighiu, while Brighiu and junior Adrian Simon rank No. 20 and Brink and Mbarek No. 31 in doubles.
The only other league squad with an individual ranking is UNLV's 79th-ranked doubles team of Elliot Wronski and Luca Barlocchi.
At stake with this weekend's competition is seeding for the MWC Championships, which will be held April 22-25 in Albuquerque, N.M. The top two seeds will receive first-round byes into the semifinal round.
Up next for the Frogs is Thursday's meeting with New Mexico, which TCU defeated last year in the championship match of the MWC Championships in Fort Worth to earn its second league title in three seasons. The Lobos are 15-3 overall this season and own a perfect 2-0 league record with victories over Air Force and UNLV. TCU brings a 15-1 all-time record against UNM into Thursday after having won nine straight matches dating back to a 4-3 loss on Feb. 17, 1993.
San Diego State will provide the Frogs with yet another ranked opponent on Saturday, marking the 19th foe in 20 matches to that point that TCU will have faced that currently appears among the ITA's top-75 teams. The Aztecs own the highest rating in the Mountain West Conference at No. 38 and enter the weekend with an 11-7 overall record. The Frogs are 4-2 all-time against SDSU, including a 4-1 victory last season in Provo, Utah.
Last up on the Frogs regular-season schedule is Saturday's matchup with Air Force, which is 7-14 overall this season and 0-2 in MWC play following defeats at the hands of New Mexico and UNLV. TCU is a perfect 6-0 in the all-time series with Air Force, holding the Falcons without a point in each of the last four outings.
TCU will be idle following this weekend until the MWC Championships April 22-25.
Players Mentioned
