• Roster
• |
• Schedule/Results
• |
• Stats
• |
• News
• |
• Archives

Jan. 19, 2010

WHAT:  No. 8 Texas (0-0) opens the 2010 regular season at No. 53 Arkansas (0-1).

WHEN:  Friday, Jan. 22 – 5:30 p.m. Central

WHERE:   Dills Indoor Tennis Center – Fayetteville, Ark. 

LIVE SCORING:  A live results link will be available at ArkansasRazorbacks.com just prior to the start of the match. 

LAST MEETING VS. ARKANSAS:  Texas defeated Arkansas by a 5-2 count on Feb. 22, 2009 in Austin.  Texas holds a 16-12 advantage in the all-time series between the two schools.

ITA RANKINGS UPDATE: UT senior All-American Dimitar Kutrovsky checks in at No. 5 in the ITA preseason singles rankings.  Texas junior Ed Corrie joins Kutrovsky in the top-10 at No. 9.  UT senior Josh Zavala ranks 38th in the singles rankings, and freshman Daniel Whitehead ranks 85th.  Freshman Vasko Mladenov comes in at No. 104.  Arkansas’ Chris Nott comes in at No. 81 in the ITA preseason singles rankings. 

Kutrovsky and Zavala come in at No. 22 in the ITA preseason doubles rankings.  

THOUGHTS FROM HEAD COACH Michael Center
On the team’s preparation for dual-match season: January has gone well.  We played well when we started the year in Key Biscayne.  We put up some good results and competed very well.  We’ve had about 10 days now in Austin to get ready and train hard, and I think our guys are excited about kicking off the season.

On the rivalry with Arkansas: Even though Arkansas has been in the Southeastern Conference for almost 20 years, a lot of the fans look at UT and Arkansas as having a rivalry, and I think we do.  It’s just one of those old Southwest Conference match-ups from years ago.  The fans have been great up there and we’ve played there in front of packed crowds.  I’m anticipating another packed house with a lot of energy.

On Arkansas’ 2010 team: They started off with a tough 4-3 loss to a good Washington team who we played last year at the NCAA Championships.  They play indoors often and have an excellent team.  We don’t play a lot indoors, and we know we will have to play well to win.

THE 2009-10 LONGHORNS:  Under 10th-year head coach Michael Center, Texas features four singles starters who led the Longhorns to the NCAA title match in 2008 and to the NCAA semifinals in 2009.  Senior Dimitar Kutrovsky is off to a fast start for Texas with a 16-3 overall singles record highlighted by an appearance at the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in November.  Junior Ed Corrie joined Kutrovsky in the singles draw at the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoors and boasts a 13-4 overall singles record heading into dual-match play.

Junior Kellen Damico holds a 5-3 overall singles record heading into dual-match play.  He finished the 2009 dual-match season by going unbeaten in his last 14 singles contests.  Senior Josh Zavala holds a 7-4 overall singles record, which features a win over Oklahoma’s 10th-ranked Andrei Daescu.