Three Vols in Men's Tennis Fall Rankings

Sept. 14, 2016

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Tennessee's Luis Valero, Jack Schipanski and Timo Stodder are nationally ranked heading into the fall college tennis season.

Valero and Schipanski, who made the second round of the NCAA championships last season, start the fall at a career-best No. 5 in the Oracle ITA national doubles rankings. The Vols' leading pair went 19-9 last year at the top of the lineup.

Coming off his first year also playing at the top of the singles lineup, Valero enters the fall in the top 50 of singles for the first time at No. 42. The junior from Colombia won a team-leading 20 matches last year and earned All-SEC honors.

Stodder is nationally ranked in singles for the first time at No. 89. The sophomore from Germany is starting his first full year of college tennis competition after starting his career in January. He earned 15 victories while playing the No. 2 position, winning seven of his final nine matches last season.

ITA ALL-AMERICAN ENTRIES: The ITA also revealed the entry list for the ITA All-American Championships, the first of the three major championships of college tennis that will be held Oct. 6-9 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Valero and Schipanski are straight into the doubles field of 32 and will be one of the top eight seeded teams because of their ranking. It will be their second national tournament together, having played at the NCAA championships last spring.

Valero is the second alternate into the main draw of singles. If he does not directly enter the main draw, he will be a top seed in qualifying alongside Stodder and Schipanski.

The Vols have five entries in pre-qualifying: Srdjan Jakovljevic, Scott Jones, Luca Wiedenmann, Steven Karl and Preston Touliatos.

SEASON STARTS NEXT WEEK: The Tennessee men's tennis team opens the fall season next week with half the team heading to the Southern Intercollegiate Championships in Athens, Georgia, and the other half playing the Ivy Plus Invitational in Princeton, N.J.