Men's Tennis Ranked No. 5 Nationally in Attendance
5/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
May 20, 2011
ITA ATTENDANCE RACE RESULTS
FORT WORTH, Texas - The TCU men's tennis program finished amongst the nation's best in home attendance this spring, according to the 2011 ITA Attendance Race.
The Horned Frogs' tallied 4,692 fans in 12 home matches to rank fifth overall in the country in total attendance. TCU averaged 391 attendees per match, which also ranked fifth in the nation. The Purple and White were ahead of programs such as Baylor, Texas, Michigan and Tennessee on both lists.
TCU's home finale against UNLV registered as the fourth-highest attended match of any program in the country, as 1,061 fans filtered into the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center to see the Frogs defeat the Rebels on Senior Day, 6-1.
In his first season as head coach, former Frog All-American David Roditi led TCU to a 13-13 overall record and a trip to the Mountain West Conference Championships finals. Seniors Emanuel Brighiu and Christopher Price were both named to the All-MWC Singles and Doubles teams, while Cameron Nash was one of 41 TCU graduates to be inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honors society this spring.
Roditi made match attendance a high point of interest when he took the job in August, forming a committee of local tennis fans and professionals that could help drive awareness towards the program. The "Keep It In The Purple" committee organized free food at every home match, recruited ball kids for TCU's night matches and served up prizes to fans between singles and doubles. TCU tennis also offered free clinics throughout the year to help draw notice to the program.
"This was a very high priority for our program," Roditi said. "We wanted to reach out to Fort Worth and get the community and our student body involved in our matches. This ranking shows that our team, our staff and the committee did a great job to achieve that goal for our program. Having large crowds turned our tennis matches into an event and I think that our fans had a good time. I know that our team loved playing in that kind of atmosphere for every home match and I'm very happy with the recognition. This is a fantastic pat on the back for our committee and a launching point for our program."
Admission is free for all TCU tennis home matches. Looking ahead to next season, the Frogs' 2012 spring schedule will include visits from Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Rice, Arizona and Tulsa to the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
