Upstate Releases 2009-10 Men's Tennis Schedule
7/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
July 28, 2009
Complete 2009-10 Men's Tennis Schedule
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Coming off one of its most successful seasons in school history, the USC Upstate men's tennis team will now take on the most ambitious schedule in school history at it looks to continue on its quest for its first Atlantic Sun Conference title by facing six teams that finished 2009 ranked in the final ITA rankings and playing an ambitious fall slate that features tournaments at Georgia, Georgia Tech and Virginia.
Upstate will start the fall by splitting its squad during the weekend of Sept. 11. Part of the team will compete at the Rajin' Cajun Invitational in Lafayette, La., while others will compete in the team's own USC Upstate Fall Tournament. The next week, a contingent of Spartans will head to the University of Georgia for the Southern Intercollegiates, where senior Javier Tori reached the quarterfinals of the Division II bracket in 2008. After a small contingent will look to qualify for the Virginia Ranked Plus 1 Invitational from Sept. 25-27, a tournament that features several of the Southeast's top players, the Spartans will head back to Georgia, this time going to Georgia Tech for the school's Fall Invitational on Oct. 2-4 to wrap up the fall's regular tournaments.
The team will also look to delve deep into both of the ITA's fall national championships beginning with a selected group looking to qualify for the D'Novo/ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla. The nine-day tournament, one of the most competitive in all of collegiate tennis, begins on Oct. 2. The team will also send a contingent to compete in the ITA Indoor Regionals, which will be held at the University of North Carolina. The event begins Oct. 14. If Upstate sends someone to the finals at the regionals, they will qualify for the ITA Indoor Championships from Nov. 5-8 at Yale to conclude the fall season.
In the spring, the Spartans will start out with perhaps the toughest five-match stretch in school history, as they face four ranked teams in their first five dual meets. Upstate will start the year for the third straight time with a dual meet with Georgia Tech, who finished 2009 ranked 48th, on Jan. 17. On Jan. 24, the Spartans will face perennial national champion contender Georgia, which finished 2009 sixth in the nation. After a dual meet against Georgia Southern, which finished 10-9-1 in 2009, on Jan. 31, the Spartans will have a pair of tough matches on Feb. 6, first facing Clemson, which finished 2009 ranked 65th, and then Division II powerhouse Anderson (S.C.), which finished 2009 ranked 15th in Division II.
On Feb. 19, the Spartans will finally return home after the tough road trip that starts the season by hosting Kennesaw State in the A-Sun opener at the Upstate Tennis Complex. Sun Belt foe Troy will also head to the Upstate Tennis Complex on Feb. 20. The Spartans then wrap up the weekend on Sunday, Feb. 21 by heading to Elon for a match against a team that finished 66th in the 2009 rankings.
Later that week, Upstate will head to Wofford for a rivalry match with the crosstown foe on Feb. 25 before A-Sun foe Mercer comes to Spartanburg for a dual on Feb. 27. Upstate will then head out on another six game road stretch, starting with three matches in Tennessee, facing A-Sun foes Belmont (March 5) and Lipscomb (March 6) and Ohio Valley Conference school Tennessee Tech (March 7) before heading to California for three matches over Spring Break, facing San Diego (March 12), Loyola Marymount (March 12) and UC Irvine (March 14).
Upstate will return home with a tune-up match against Yale, which finished ranked 69th in the nation in 2009, on March 16 before heading to Johnson City, Tenn. for a match with four-time defending A-Sun champions, ETSU, on Jan. 19. The Spartans lost 4-3 to the Bucs, which finished the year ranked 62nd, in a heartbreaker in the final match of the season in a match that decided the A-Sun title in 2009.
After that, the Spartans will head to Jacksonville, Fla., for matches with A-Sun foes North Florida (March 26) and Jacksonville (March 27) before heading home for the final four matches. Upstate will start the stretch run with an April 1 match with Stetson before Florida Gulf Coast comes to town on April 3. On April 6, Campbell will enter town to wrap up the A-Sun season. Three days later, the Spartans will conclude their season with a match against MEAC Champions S.C. State.
The Spartans finished 22-3 overall in 2009 and with a 9-1 A-Sun record, good for second in the league. Upstate won a school-record 20 matches during the season and won a school-record four A-Sun Player of the Week awards during the season.
