University of Tennessee Athletics
Vols Start Season at Virginia, Georgia
September 23, 2010 | Men's Tennis
Sept. 23, 2010
The Tennessee Volunteers open the fall season Friday by competing at the UVa Ranked Plus One Invitational and the Southern Intercollegiate Championships.
Four Vols are traveling to the UVa Invitational in Charlottesville, Va., a tournament featuring 28 players in the ITA national rankings. Senior John-Patrick Smith, who returned to No. 1 in the rankings earlier this month, will attempt to defend his singles and doubles titles from last season. He is joined in Charlottesville by fellow senior Matteo Fago and sophomores Rhyne Williams and Tennys Sandgren.
Junior Bryan Swartz and sophomores Edward Jones, Taylor Patrick and Max Stevens are headed to Athens, Ga., to compete in the Southern Intercollegiate Championships.
The UVa Invitational ends with the championships Sunday, while the Southern Intercollegiate runs through Monday.
Previewing the UVa Invitational
Smith is the only member of the national top 10 playing in the UVa Invitational. The second highest ranked player is Virginia's Sanam Singh, who is ranked 13th. At No. 21, Williams is the fourth-highest ranked competitor in the field.
In 2009, the Vols took home two titles and reached the finals of three other draws in Charlottesville. Smith captured the A-1 flight doubles trophy with Davey Sandgren and then won the singles title the next day. Williams played his way to the singles and doubles finals of the A-2 draw last season in his second career tournament. His first singles title came a week later at the Georgia Tech Fall Invitational.
Smith is once again in the A-1 flight and plays Maryland's Maros Horny in the round of 16. Williams, ranked 21st nationally, is the highest ranked player in the A-3 flight and faces Patrick Daciek on Friday.
Smith and Williams are teaming up for the first time in doubles. Ranked seventh nationally, the Smith and Williams earned the top seed in the A-1 draw and face Cornell's Jeremy Feldman and Andy Gauthier. Smith enters his senior season 21 wins shy of tying Byron Talbot's school record 131 career doubles wins.
Tennys Sandgren and Fago are both in the A-4 draw. Sandgren plays Northwestern's Spencer Wolf, and Fago faces Nebraska's Calin Paar, who is ranked 49th.
For Sandgren, Friday marks the start of his first collegiate fall season. He joined the Vols in January and finished 23-5 in the spring. Fago won a career-best 34 matches as a junior last season.
Fago and Sandgren are also playing doubles together for the first time since February. They had a 5-1 record through the first two months of the spring season and were briefly ranked 43rd nationally. They play Jared Pinsky and Chris Mengel of Duke to open play in the A-4 draw.
Previewing the Southern Intercollegiate
Rain spoiled much of the 2009 Southern Intercollegiate, washing out doubles play completely and altering the schedule. The forecast for the weekend calls for clear skies Friday and Saturday, with a chance of showers on the final two days.
Jones is the lone Vol competing in the Division I singles flight, and he faces Kinshuk Sharma of UNC-Wilmington in the opening round Friday. Jones finished 14-10 as a freshman and improved as the season progressed, winning four of his last five matches.
Stevens, who finished 12-10 last season, is competing in the Division II draw. Patrick and Swartz are playing in the Division III draw.
Like Fago, Jones enters the tournament on a five-match doubles winning streak and is teaming up once again with Stevens in the Division I draw. Jones and Stevens combined for a 6-2 record last season and won all three dual matches together.
Patrick and Swartz are seeded No. 1 in the Division II draw. They finished 1-2 together, winning their last match in the spring.
UVa Ranked Plus One Invitational
Charlottesville, Va.
Friday
Singles
A-1 (Round of 16)
John-Patrick Smith, UT, vs. Maros Horny, Maryland
A-3 (Round of 16)
Rhyne Williams, UT, vs. Patrick Daciek, Virginia Tech
A-4 (Round of 16)
Tennys Sandgren, UT, vs. Spencer Wolf, Northwestern
Matteo Fago, UT, vs. Calin Paar, Nebraska
Doubles
A-1
John-Patrick Smith/Rhyne Williams, UT, vs. Andy Gauthier/Jeremy Feldman, Cornell
A-4
Tennys Sandgren/Matteo Fago, UT, vs. Jared Pinsky/Chris Mengel, Duke
Southern Intercollegiate Championships
Athens, Ga.
Friday
Singles
Division I (Round of 64)
Edward Jones, UT, vs. Kinshuk Sharma, UNC-Wilmington
Division II (Round of 128)
Max Stevens, UT, vs. David O'Hare, Memphis
Division III
(Round of 64)
Taylor Patrick, UT, vs. Alex Metzner, Radford
Bryan Swartz, UT, bye
(Round of 32)
Bryan Swartz, UT, vs. Erik Halaj, Stetson/Henry Walker, South Carolina (Round of 32)
Doubles
Division I (Round of 64)
Max Stevens/Edward Jones, UT, vs. Elliot Barnwell/Matt Langley, MTSU
Division II (Round of 32 - Saturday)
(1) Taylor Patrick/Bryan Swartz, UT, vs. Winthrop/Central Florida
Players Mentioned
