University of Tennessee Athletics
2011-12 Tennis Schedule Release
August 26, 2011 | Women's Tennis
Aug. 26, 2011
KNOXVILLE - With a schedule featuring six teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament Round of 16 a season ago, the Tennessee women's tennis team will be tested early and often throughout its upcoming season, as co-head coaches Mike Patrick and Sonia Hahn-Patrick announced the 2011-12 slate Friday afternoon.
"We have another real competitive schedule," Mike Patrick said. "A couple of interesting things about on our schedule this year is getting to play in New York at the National Tennis Center to start our dual-match season off against two top 10 teams. Having a young team, that will probably be about as good a start as you're going to get to see what it's going to be like to be in the fire."
The Lady Vols will open individual play next month with the Furman Fall Classic on Sept. 23-25, the first of five events they'll compete in during the fall portion of the schedule.
The Orange and White will serve up the spring campaign Jan. 21-22 against two teams that finished in the top 11 of the final 2011 ITA Rankings last season, Virginia and North Carolina, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York, N.Y.
Following their trip to the Big Apple, the Big Orange will host the ITA Kickoff Weekend, Jan. 27-28, which will match UT against UC Davis and either Tulsa or North Carolina State.
Rounding out the Lady Vols' non-conference slate are four-time defending BIG EAST champion Notre Dame (Feb. 3), 2011 Big Ten regular-season champion Michigan (Feb. 5), Big Ten powers Indiana (Feb. 17) and Ohio State (Feb. 19), UCF (Feb. 25) and UNLV (March 21).
Tennessee opens SEC play in hosting national champion Florida on March 2, as a part of an 11-match conference schedule.
"All the teams in our conference are better this year so I think our expectations are going to have to go up," Sonia Hahn-Patrick said. "But I think our talent level has gone up as well. It's just a matter of getting the young ones experience and getting them ready. We expect a lot of good things."
Senior Day will take place April 8, when UT hosts Alabama. The Lady Vols wrap up their regular-season with a trip to Athens, Ga., to take on the Bulldogs.
"It's another competitive conference," Mike Patrick said. "Everyone is better than they were last year. Florida is the defending national champion and they didn't lose anybody. That's going to be tough. Georgia added some quality players to an already formidable lineup. Alabama, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt are all real quality squads and everybody else in the conference is getting better.
With three freshmen, who made up TennisRecuiting.net's fifth-ranked 2011 recruiting class nationally, and four returners, the Lady Vols will use their challenging schedule to prepare for the SEC Tournament, hosted by Ole Miss, from April 19-22. From there, Tennessee will look to advance to its 17th consecutive NCAA Tournament.
"We feel great about our team," Mike Patrick said. "We have a young team and this schedule is going to help us get ready for May."
