Men's Tennis Announces 2014-15 Schedule
9/9/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
FORT WORTH, Texas - Under the direction of fifth-year head coach David Roditi, the TCU men's tennis team announced the 2014-15 schedule on Tuesday, with the Horned Frogs slated to take on at least 11 NCAA Tournament participants from last season.
TCU, the two-time defending ITA national attendance race winners, will play against 14 ranked opponents in the upcoming season and schools from 10 different conferences. The Frogs will host 11 matches to be played on the Bernard J. `Tut' Bartzen Varsity Courts at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center and will take part in at least eight different professional events.
"We are excited about another tough schedule for this season. We get to host teams like Texas and Texas A&M, which is always exciting for our fans," Roditi said. "I believe our schedule stacks up with any schedule out there which is a huge motivating factor for our players to get better.
"We will play at Texas A&M to start the spring season so we won't have time to work ourselves into our season. We must be ready from the start. I am a big proponent of exposing our players to the professional tournaments during the season and this year we will play even more professional events."
The Frogs' schedule includes 12 fall tournaments, beginning with the Midland Invitational on Sept. 12-14 in Midland, Texas. TCU's fall schedule also includes the Cajun Tennis Classic (Sept. 18-21), the Saint Francis Health System ITA All-American Championships (Sept. 28-Oct. 5), the USTA/ITA Texas Regional Championships (Oct. 18-22) and the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships (Nov. 6-9).
The professional tournaments that TCU will take part in during the fall are the Napa Valley Men's 50K Challenger (Sept. 20-28), the Sacramento Men's 100K Challenger (Sept. 27-Oct. 5), the Houston Men's 15K Futures Tournament (Oct. 4-12), the Futures of Mansfield Men's 15K Pro Circuit Event (Oct. 11-19), the Charlottesville Men's 50K Pro Tennis Challenger, the Knoxville 50K Challenger (Nov. 1-9) and the JSM Challenger of Champaign (Nov. 8-16).
The month of January will kick off the spring season, as TCU returns to the court with the FGCU Hidden Dual in Naples, Fla., on Jan. 7-11. The Frogs return home for the first time with a dual match against UC Santa Barbara (Jan. 18), before taking part in the ITA National Kick-Off Weekend in College Station, Texas, where TCU will take on Texas A&M in the first round. LSU and San Diego will also be on hand, with the winner of the four-team tournament advancing to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in Chicago, Ill., on Feb. 12-15.
TCU will take part in the Challenger of Dallas 100K Pro Circuit Event on Jan. 21-Feb. 8, before resuming dual match action with a home match against New Mexico on Feb. 6. The Frogs will hit the road for the rest of the month of February with stops at Tulsa (Feb. 8), Rice (Feb. 22) and Texas (Feb. 27) for a non-conference match-up.
March opens with a double-header, as the Frogs face Big 10 opponent Wisconsin on March 1 at noon, with another match scheduled against UT Arlington set for 4:30 p.m. TCU will take a road trip to Middle Tennessee (March 6) and Wake Forest (March 8) and then will return home for a three-game homestand against 2014 NCAA Tournament participants Michigan (March 15), Louisiana-Lafayette (March 20) and Dartmouth (March 21).
At the end of March, the Frogs will open Big 12 Conference play on the road with matches against defending Big 12 Tournament champion Baylor in Waco on March 24, before traveling to 2014 NCAA Runner-up Oklahoma on March 27 in Norman. TCU will end the road swing with Oklahoma State on March 29 in Stillwater.
Texas Tech will arrive in Fort Worth on April 2 for the first of two home conference contests, while the team will also host USF on April 4. One last non-conference matchup on the road against Metroplex rival SMU on April 8 will take place and then TCU will end the season at home with top-10 opponents Texas A&M (April 11) and Texas (April 18).
The Frogs will start postseason play by heading to Waco for the 2015 Big 12 Championships on April 24-26. The first and second rounds of NCAA Championship action begins on May 8-10 on campus sites. Baylor will host the NCAA Team Championships and NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships on May 14-25 at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco.
