MTEN Preview: NCAA Championship
5/12/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
FORT WORTH, Texas - The pursuit of history for the No. 4 TCU men's tennis team will begin on Friday, May 13 as the team is set to host the opening two rounds of the 2016 NCAA Division I Team Championship at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
The Horned Frogs (24-3) will face Jackson State (8-17) in the opening round on Friday at 1 p.m., while Rice (23-7) and LSU (14-11) will also be on hand for a first round match at 10 a.m. The winners of the two matches will face off in the second round on Saturday at 1 p.m., with the victor earning a spot in the NCAA Championship Team Finals that will be held at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla.
TCU Notables
TCU earned a seed in the NCAA Championship for the second straight season at No. 4 and are hosting the opening rounds for the fifth time in program history. The Frogs are coming off winning the Big 12 regular season and tournament titles for the first time in program history. TCU has won 19 of their last 20 matches and posted 22 wins over ranked opponents this season.
In the All-Big 12 awards that were released on Thursday by the conference office, TCU had five players honored along with head coach David Roditi. Alex Rybakov became the second straight TCU freshman to earn Freshman of the Year, while Roditi earned Big 12 Co-Coach of the year for the second straight season. Cameron Norrie along with Rybakov earned spots on the All-Big 12 Singles First Team and All-Big 12 Doubles Second Team. The top doubles tandem of Hudson Blake and Reese Stalder were named to the All-Big 12 Doubles First Team, while Guillermo Nuñez earned his second straight All-Big 12 Singles honor by placing on the second team.
Three Horned Frogs are ranked in the singles poll, while there remains one ranked doubles team. 2015 and 2016 ITA All-American Norrie sits at No. 5, while Rybakov checks in at No. 24 and Nuñez is ranked No. 86. Blake and Stalder retain their doubles ranking at No. 65 for the week.
Scouting the Tigers
Jackson State won its fourth SWAC Championship by beating Alabama State, 4-1, on April 17. This was the program's first conference title since 1998 and the first under first-year head coach Lois Alexis who was named 2016 SWAC Coach of the Year. Federico Boscarino was named SWAC Player of the Year after going 4-1 against conference opponents and posting 10 wins overall this season.
The Tigers entered the SWAC Tournament as the regular season champion and No. 1 seed. The Tigers posted a 4-1 conference record and won seven of its final 14 matches of the season, including two straight wins in the conference tournament. Richie Agarwal was named SWAC Tournament MVP and joined his teammates Miguel Gomez and Federico Mendieta on the SWAC All-Tournament Team.
All-Time Series Record
Friday's match marks the first-ever meeting between TCU and Jackson State.
Live Updates
Live results of the first and second round matches can be found at TCU.StatBroadcast.com. Final results and a recap of the TCU matches can be found on GoFrogs.com following the completion of the competition each day. In-match updates can be found by following TCU men's tennis on twitter (@TCUMensTennis).
Players Mentioned
