Men's Tennis opens 2007 season with No. 12 national ranking
AUSTIN, Texas -- Defending Big 12 Conference Champion Texas, a 2006 NCAA semifinalist, opens the 2007 season ranked No. 12 in the Fila Collegiate Tennis Rankings released Tuesday by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). The No. 12 ranking ties the highest ITA preseason ranking under seventh-year head coach Michael Center, the 2006 co-Big 12 Coach of the Year and ITA South Central Regional Coach of the Year. Texas opened the 2003 season ranked No. 12 on its way to the NCAA round of 16. UT returns four letterwinners from the 2006 squad that recorded a 26-4 record, claimed a share of the Big 12 Conference regular season title and won the Big 12 Conference tournament. The Longhorns knocked off Tennessee Tech, Rice, Mississippi and Ohio State at the NCAA Championships before falling to eventual NCAA Champion Pepperdine in the national semifinals at Stanford. Junior Milan Mihailovic (Nis, Serbia) enters the 2007 season with a career-high No. 96 singles ranking issued Tuesday by the ITA. Mihailovic tallied a 28-10 overall singles mark a year ago, including a 6-1 record in conference play. Joining Mihailovic in the singles rankings is freshman Rook Schellenberg (Dallas, Texas), who enjoyed a productive first semester in Austin with an 8-4 singles record. Schellenberg knocked off then-No. 46 Marek Velicka of Oklahoma in his first collegiate match. Texas opens the 2007 season on Saturday, Jan. 13 at the Hurricane Invitational in Coral Gables, Fla. Dual-match play begins on Sunday, Jan. 21 at SMU.
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