Arizona State Restores Men's Tennis; NCAA Division I Singles and Doubles Fields Announced, with Ohio State's Torpegaard and UNC's Carter Top Seeds
Rumors that Arizona State would be bringing back men's tennis had been circulating for some months, and when the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced its strategic partnership with the university back in March, it was all but confirmed. Today, the University made the official announcement at a press conference, with the reinstatement of the program after an eight-year absence.
The fundraising for reestablishment of the program continues, with half of the $10 million dollar target raised. Ray Anderson, the Arizona State athletic director who arrived in January 2014, personally committed a million dollars, and from the comments in the press release, Adidas has also played a role in funding the return. If you are interested in donating to the fund, a link is available in the release. The video of the press conference is available here.
It will be interesting to see who will be hired for the position of head coach. It's obviously an excellent job, with the prestige of the Pac-12 conference behind it, but the challenges of starting over shouldn't be minimized. For reasons I've never really understood, Arizona hasn't been fertile ground for junior development, but the proximity to Southern California could help, and international recruiting should be enhanced by the school's reputation. It's certainly exciting to see a major program return, and although none have the tennis history of Arizona State, it would be great if other Power 5 schools like Colorado, Maryland and Syracuse could follow the Sun Devils' lead.
The other big college news of the day is the release of the singles and doubles selections for the Division I NCAA individual tournaments, scheduled for May 25-30 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The complete list of women's selections is here. All seeds, listed below, have already earned All-American honors:
1. Hayley Carter, North Carolina
2. Danielle Collins, Virginia
3. Francesca Di Lorenzo, Ohio State
4. Brooke Austin, Florida
5. Ellen Perez, Georgia
6. Maegan Manasse, Cal
7. Luisa Stefani, Pepperdine
8. Sinead Lohan, Miami
9-16 seeds:
Breaunna Addison, Texas
Frances Altick, Vanderbilt
Julia Elbaba, Virginia
Klara Fabikova, Cal
Jasmine Lee, Mississippi State
Stephanie Wagner, Miami
Belinda Woolcock, Florida
Ronit Yurovsky, Michigan
Doubles seeds:
1. Whitney Kay and Hayley Carter, North Carolina
2. Aldila Sutjiadi and Mami Adachi, Kentucky
3. Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan, Florida
4. Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr, Cal
5-8 seeds:
Alizee Michaud and Pleun Burgmans, Auburn
Giuliana Olmos and Gabby Smith, Southern Cal
Taylor Davidson and Caroline Doyle, Stanford
Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips, UCLA
The complete list of men's selections is here. The seeds:
1. Mikael Torpegaard, Ohio State
2. Roberto Cid, South Florida
3. Dominik Koepfer, Tulane
4. Aleks Vukic, Illinois
5. Cameron Norrie, TCU
6. Mackenzie McDonald, UCLA
7. Christopher Eubanks, Georgia Tech
8. Ryan Shane, Virginia
9-16 seeds:
Tom Fawcett, Stanford
Diego Hidalgo, Florida
Thai Kwiatkowski, Virginia
Julian Lenz, Baylor
Benjamin Lock, Florida State
Skander Mansouri, Wake Forest
Joao Monteiro, Virginia Tech
Austin Smith, Georgia
Doubles seeds:
1. Gordon Watson and Diego Hidalgo, Florida
2. Mackenzie McDonald and Martin Redlicki, UCLA
3. Brett Clark and Robert Kelly, North Carolina
4. Luca Corinteli and Ryan Shane, Virginia
5-8 seeds:
Korey Lovett and Mazen Osama, Alabama
Jordan Daigle and Boris Arias, LSU
Arjun Kadhe and Julian Cash, Oklahoma State
Cameron Klinger and Rhys Johnson, Vanderbilt
6 comments:
Christopher Eubanks is GT not UGA.
Yes, of course. Thanks for the correction. I will fix.
Arizona has two problems for junior development: Most of the population in Arizona are retired people and college students, its way to hot to play tennis during the summer. I guess you could say the same issues exist in Florida, but tennis seems to flourish in the South. California has mild weather in the winter, but summer weather is 80-95, Arizon is over 100 all summer. Can anyone comment on why they need $10 million to fund ASU mens tennis program? How much does a program cost to fund, with all facilities in place?
To Endow Scholarships:)
I read recently that only 25% to 30% of athletic departments operate in the black. ESPN is already laying off workers with subscriber numbers falling. What happens to non revenue sports when funding in general drops or athletic departments can't continue in the red? Title 9 offers some protection to womens tennis; I can't see the protection for mens tennis. Conference expansion and realignments have added huge costs for non revenue sports. ACC schools used to travel only from Virgina to tallahassee; then from Miami to Boston; now to Syracuse and Notre Dame. The B1G is the same traveling from Nebraska to New Jersey.
30 year old Title 9, so women still need protection in 2016? End of men's college tennis would mean end of tennis in college. Women only play cause the scholarships are so much more lucrative in women's than men's - it's not like they attract much more than a family fan. Make it truly equal and let women max at 4.5 and you would get more talented women playing. It is ridiculous that bottom of line up and bench riders get a full scholarship in women's college tennis. Thought it was all about equality nowadays.
Post a Comment