University of Tennessee Athletics
Libietis, Reese Earn 3rd All-America Honors
June 04, 2015 | Men's Tennis
SKILLMAN, N.J. -- Tennessee's Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese earned ITA All-America honors for the third consecutive year, the college tennis governing body announced Thursday.
Libietis earned singles All-America honors for the second time in his career after finishing 13th in the rankings. Libietis and Reese collected their third All-America doubles honors, ending their careers as one of the most successful doubles teams in NCAA history.
In singles, Libietis went 26-4 as a senior, including 18-1 in team matches at the top of the lineup. He ended with 106 career singles wins, the ninth most in program history.
Libietis and Reese ended the 2015 season ranked third nationally, which remarkably marked the third consecutive season the two have finished the year ranked in the top three in doubles. They were No. 3 as sophomores and No. 1 as juniors when they won the NCAA championship. As seniors, they reached the NCAA quarterfinals and defended their title at the ITA All-American Championships.
They are the seventh and eighth players in program history to earn All-America honors in three seasons. John-Patrick Smith (2008-11) is the only four-year All-American. He was honored in both singles and doubles all four years, becoming just the second player in college tennis history to earn eight total honors.
Libietis and Reese will be honored this weekend at the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame banquet on Saturday as one of its teams of the year.
Both will begin their professional playing careers in Europe later this month. They are already ranked around 600 in the ATP World Doubles Rankings because of their title run at the Knoxville Challenger in November.
2016 ITA KICK-OFF WEEKEND ANNOUNCED
The Vols have elected to go to Wake Forest for next season's ITA Kick-Off Weekend on Jan. 23-24, 2016. As the No. 2 seed, they will take on Cal Poly in the first round and then the winner between Wake Forest and Auburn.
The ITA Kick-Off Weekend serves as a qualifier for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, which will be held next season at Virginia's Boars Head Club. The weekend tournament sites are based on last year's final rankings, and teams in order of final 2015 ITA ranking choose where to play.
