Tide Men's Tennis Hosts Doubleheader Wednesday
4/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
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Wednesday will be a full day of tennis for the Alabama men’s tennis team as it will play twice at the UA Tennis Complex. The Crimson Tide will host Samford at 12 p.m. followed by its 2005 home finale against UAB at 6 p.m.
“We’re excited to finally get back home and play in front of the home crowd,” Alabama head coach Billy Pate said. “We’re looking forward to playing a pair of instate schools.”
The Tide is 6-1 at home this season against non-conference opponents. Alabama will look to add two more wins to that total Wednesday. The only non-conference opponent to beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa this year was then-No. 12 Ohio State.
Alabama could possibly reach a milestone on Wednesday. Never before has the Crimson Tide featured three 20-match winners in the same season. However, sophomore Joseph Jung is currently 19-12 and needs just one victory to become Alabama’s third 20-match winner this season. Sophomore Luigi D’Agord (23-18) and freshman Billy Mertz (22-14) have already notched 20 wins.
Samford (14-6, 8-0 OVC) will enter Wednesday on a three-match winning streak and having already won the Ohio Valley Conference regular season crown. The Bulldogs are 0-2 this season against SEC opponents. Samford lost to Auburn 5-2 and South Carolina 7-0.
UAB (14-4, 2-1 CUSA) has won seven matches in a row entering Wednesday and have been as high as No. 72 in the ITA rankings this year. The Blazers are lead by Tobi Klein. Klein is 11-4 this season at No. 1 singles.
“Both UAB and Samford have had good seasons so we’ll need to have a great effort to win,” Pate said. “Wednesday will be a challenge for us and hopefully we’ll come out ready to play and get back on the winning track.
The day’s first match was originally scheduled for 1 p.m. but due to the threat of inclement weather and coupled with the fact that the women’s team is scheduled to play at 3 p.m. the start has been moved to 12 p.m. In the case of rain the matches will be moved indoors and played as scheduled.
Alabama will actually play three instate schools this week. In addition to Samford and UAB on Wednesday, Alabama will travel to play rival Auburn on Saturday at 5 p.m. to close out the regular season.
