For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 25,
2002
Contact: Dave Geringer, UTPA Director of Athletic Media Relations, (956)
381-2240
EDINBURG, TX-The University of Texas-Pan
American men’s tennis team is headed north.
The Broncs will compete at the three-day,
seven-team Southland Conference Tournament at The University of Texas-San
Antonio this weekend.
UTPA will take a 9-8 overall record into the
tournament, which they will enter as the fourth-seeded team. UTPA plays
fifth-seeded Lamar (7-13) Friday at 3:00 p.m. Second-seeded UTSA (11-8) plays
seventh-seeded Centenary (5-16) Friday at 8 a.m; while third-seeded
Louisiana-Monroe (7-13) meets sixth-seeded Southeastern Louisiana (6-15) at
11:30. Saturday’s semi-finals match the winners of the first two matches at 11
a.m; while the winner of the UTPA-LU match plays top-seeded Texas-Arlington
(14-8) at 3:30 p.m. Sunday’s championship match is scheduled for 10 a.m. and
the winner of the tournament will earn the SLC’s automatic berth at the NCAA
Championships.
The Broncs have won four of their last six
matches, losing only to UTA and UTSA, and Head Coach Todd Chapman is
enthusiastic. “I feel like the last two weeks have been our best two weeks of
the year,” said Chapman. “I don’t think we’ve peaked, but I think
we’ve played the best tennis we’ve played all year. I like our chances this
weekend.”
UTPA is 2-0 against Lamar, having defeated
the Cardinals 5-2 at Beaumont February 10th and again, 4-0 last
Tuesday. “Lamar is a tough team, although we’ve beaten them twice,” said
Chapman. “We played better against UTA than we did against UTSA, probably
because our guys really got up to play them. But we have to take it one match at
a time. We can’t overlook Lamar at all. We’ve had two close matches and we
expect a third one. We have to be prepared from the first match on.”
Even though the Broncs would have to defeat two teams they haven’t beaten this year to win the tournament. Chapman is optimistic. “You play and practice the whole year for this week, and it’s exciting,” said Chapman. “This should be the most exciting time of the year. We had a lot of energy this week in practice, and we should enjoy it.”
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