Upstate Releases 2009-10 Women's Tennis Schedule
7/27/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
July 27, 2009
Complete 2009-10 Women's Tennis Schedule
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Having won 80 percent of its matches during the last three years, the USC Upstate women's tennis team will enter its 2009-10 campaign with an 18-match dual meet schedule in the spring looking for its sixth straight 10-win season under head coach Alessandro De Marzo. The team will prepare for the spring schedule with four fall tournaments, as De Marzo announced the 2009-10 schedule on Monday.
The schedule starts with a familiar fall schedule, as Upstate will start the season with its own USC Upstate Fall Tournament on Sept. 11-12 before returning to the Elon Tournament on Oct. 10-12. The ITA Carolina Regionals follow from Oct. 22-26 before the season concludes at the Wofford Fall Challenge, held in downtown Spartanburg on Nov. 7.
The Spartans' spring schedule may be its most ambitious as a member of Division I, as the team plays 18 matches, 10 against Atlantic Sun Conference foes and eight non-conference matches. Of Upstate's eight non-conference matches, seven finished the 2009 campaign with a winning record.
Upstate will start the season with four non-conference matches on the road, starting with a match at Davidson (12-12, Southern Conference) on Jan. 30. The team will then head South to face Georgia Southern (13-7, Southern Conference) on Sun., Jan. 31. The next weekend, Upstate will make the short trip to Charlotte (16-5, Atlantic 10) for a Feb. 6 match and will head to Conway, S.C. on Feb. 13 to face Coastal Carolina (15-6, Big South).
The Spartan schedule will not get easier as Kennesaw State (11-9, 6-3 A-Sun) heads to the USC Upstate Tennis Complex to open the A-Sun season on Feb. 19. Sun Belt Conference foe Troy (13-7) will follow Kennesaw State into the Upstate Tennis Complex on Feb. 20 before the Spartans head to Elon (13-12, Southern Conference) to wrap up the weekend on Feb. 21.
After Mercer visits Upstate on Feb. 27 for a conference match, the Spartans will head to Tennessee for a weekend, facing off against A-Sun foes Belmont (March 5) and Lipscomb (March 6) before wrapping up the trip by facing Tennessee Tech (March 7). After a 12-day layoff, the team will return to the Volunteer State for a grudge match against reigning A-Sun Champions ETSU (March 19), which beat Upstate, 5-2, in the season finale in 2009 to knock the Spartans out of first place for the first time since joining the conference in 2008.
The Spartans then will head to North Florida, who will be looking to avenge a 4-3 loss to the Spartans in 2009, and Jacksonville on March 26-27 before heading home for the final four matches of the year. Stetson, who tied ETSU for the A-Sun regular-season title and is the only other team to have beaten Upstate in A-Sun play, will visit the Upstate Tennis Complex on April 1. Florida Gulf Coast will visit on April 3 before Campbell and Upstate will wrap up the A-Sun schedule on April 6. MEAC Champion S.C. State (14-4) will visit the Spartans on April 9 to wrap up the season.
USC Upstate finished its second season of Division I play with a 13-4 overall record and an 8-2 mark in the A-Sun, good for third in the league. The team also had a nine-match winning streak, the third longest in school history.
