University of Tennessee Athletics
M TENNIS CENTRAL: ITA Kick-Off Weekend
January 23, 2015 | Men's Tennis
SOUTHBEND, Ind. -- The 17th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers will square off against two top-25 teams in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend in a bid to qualify for national indoors for the seventh consecutive year.
The Vols (4-0) take on 16th-ranked Columbia on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Notre Dame's Eck Tennis Pavilion. They face either No. 14 Notre Dame or No. 24 Oklahoma State on Sunday.
The winner of the two-day tournament advances to next month's ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
Tennessee opened the season last weekend at Goodfriend Tennis Center, collecting a pair of doubleheader wins. The weekend marked the dual match debut of four new Vols: Igor Smelyanski, Luis Valero, Jack Schipanski and Jess Jones.
THE VOLS AND THE ITA KICK-OFF
This season marks the seventh year the ITA has used the ITA Kick-Off Weekend to serve as qualifying for next month's ITA National Indoor Championships. The winners at the 15 four-team tournament sites qualify for the national tournament field. Illinois automatically qualifies as the host school.
Tennessee has qualified for national indoors the first six years of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, sporting a 12-0 record. The Vols have hosted the tournament five times and have also qualified on the road, winning at Illinois in 2013.
NEWCOMERS IN THE LINEUP
Over the weekend, the Vols' newcomers played in the middle of singles lineup. Freshmen Igor Smelyanski and Luis Valero played the No. 2 and 3 positions against North Florida on Saturday and Elon on Sunday, both collecting straight-set wins in the two matches. Valero played three matches during the weekend, posting a 3-0 record. The two new Vols also played doubles together at the No. 2 position, going 3-1.
Sophomore Jack Schipanski went 2-1 in singles and 4-0 in doubles with Andrew Dromsky.
Freshman Jess Jones saw action in two matches with a 1-1 record.
BACK IN THE TOP 20
In the final stretch of his career, senior Mikelis Libietis is off to a fast start. He enters the spring ranked 16th nationally, his highest ranking in a year.
He is 9-2 this year, riding a seven-match winning streak. He's already posted one ranked victory at the top of the lineup, beating No. 72 Jack Findel-Hawkins of North Florida 6-4, 7-6.
Libietis has played No. 1 or 2 in the Vols' singles lineup his entire career. He played No. 1 as a freshman and sophomore and split time on courts 1 and 2 as a junior.
RECORDS UPDATE
Seniors Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese opened the spring with three straight-set wins at the top of the lineup. Libietis moved up to 14th on the Tennessee career singles wins list with 89. Reese climbed into a tie for 16th with 86.
In their fourth season playing together, Libietis and Reese are within striking distance of Tennessee's team doubles wins record of 102, held by Byron Talbot and Shelby Cannon (1985-88).
Libietis and Reese enter the weekend with 84 together. They are 11-0 this season and have a 17-match winning streak dating back to last season's NCAA title run.
A LOOK AT THE FIELD
The Vols will be playing in what looks to be one of the most competitive regionals in the country. All four teams are ranked in the top 25 in the early season: No. 14 Notre Dame, No. 16 Columbia, No. 17 Tennessee and No. 24 Oklahoma State.
Columbia is returning all six starters from last year's team, which reached the NCAA Round of 16 for the first time in program history. Winston Lin leads their lineup and is ranked No. 22 nationally, the second-highest ranked player in the tournament to Libietis. In doubles, Libietis and Reese will face a very familiar pair in Ashok Narayana and Max Schnur. The Vols are 1-1 against the 10th-ranked pair, beating them in their only meeting this year at the ITA All-American Championships.
Saturday marks the first-ever meeting against Columbia.
Notre Dame returns four of its starters from last season. Two singles players are ranked: No. 37 Quentin Monaghan and No. 82 Josh Hagar. Notre Dame also has two doubles teams ranked in the top 25. The Irish beat Kentucky last week in Lexington, Ky.
Oklahoma State upset the Vols in a non-conference match last season in Stillwater, Okla. The Cowboys return their top-two starters from last year: No. 74 Arjun Kadhe and No. 98 Jakob Sude. Kadhe and Sude are also ranked in the top 15 in doubles; Libietis and Reese are 2-0 against the pair.
