Alabama Tennis Announces 2006-07 Schedule
7/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
TUSCALOOSA -- University of Alabama head tennis coach Billy Pate announced the 2006-07 men’s tennis schedule Tuesday. The schedule features 11 home dual-matches, 22 in all, plus the Crimson Tide Fall Championships October 26-29. The schedule will also give the Tide a chance to increase its winning streak against in-state foes to 16 with five such match-ups on the slate.
“As in the past few years, we want to continue playing a national-level schedule that will include a variety of highly-competitive programs representing different regions of the country,” Pate said. “Since we expect this squad to be deeper and more experienced than we’ve been the last two years, I feel confident we will embrace the challenge of our schedule and see it as an opportunity to approach the post-season with the mindset that we can play with anyone and expect to advance in the tournament.”
The Crimson Tide’s 2007 schedule will provide one of the toughest home slates in school history. Eight of the Tide’s 11 home matches will come against opponents who participated in last year’s NCAA Championships. Non-conference foes Virginia, Winthrop, Furman and Clemson will all visit Tuscaloosa in February before national runners-up Georgia and Round of 16 participants Ole Miss and Florida highlight conference play in March.
??Bama will once again host the Crimson Tide Fall Championships in October of 2006. This year, four teams are slated to participate (Miss. State, Georgia Tech, Miami and Nebraska), in addition to Alabama, as the tournament takes on a mock-dual-match format for the first time. Alabama will also send players to the ITA All-American Championships and ITA Southeast Regional Championships during fall competition.
As has been customary during the Billy Pate era, Alabama will kick off the spring season by hosting a double-header on January 27 when the Tide takes on Jacksonville State and Troy prior to entering February’s stretch of four consecutive NCAA tournament opponents at home. Then on February 23-24 ??Bama will hit the road for the first time and begin its longest road stretch of the season as it will play at Princeton and at Columbia.
As Southeastern Conference play opens on March 2, Alabama will complete a four-match road swing at Vanderbilt followed by a trip to face Kentucky before heading home to host Ole Miss and Miss. State.
Beginning on March 15 the Tide will take part in the Blue Gray Nationals for the second straight season. The tournament annually features a number of the top teams in America at the Lagoon Park Tennis Center in Montgomery, Ala.
Once SEC play resumes, Alabama will look for its second straight win over Tennessee as it heads to Knoxville, Tenn. before returning home to face Georgia, Florida and South Carolina to round out the home schedule. Road matches then follow against LSU and Arkansas before an exciting three-match stretch against in-state foes Samford, UAB and Auburn to close out the regular season.
The SEC Championships will be held in Baton Rouge, La. April 19-22 and will be followed by the NCAA Tournament in May.
