BLUE-GRAY TENNIS: Competitive field set for annual tourney
University of Alabama tennis player Moka Ito is scheduled to appear with doubles teammate Isabella Harvison in this weekend’s Blue-Gray Tennis Classic (Unv. Alabama Media Relations)
By TIM GAYLE
The 72nd Blue-Gray Tennis Classic kicks off Friday at Lagoon Park Tennis Center and O’Connor Tennis Center with one of the most competitive men’s tennis draws in the history of the tournament.
Eight men’s teams and eight women’s teams make up the field for the tournament, which starts today and concludes with a championship on Saturday afternoon.
“I think anyone can beat anyone,” Alabama men’s tennis coach George Husack said. “Because of the format, where you play three matches over two days, it’s taxing. I think the weather factors into it because we’re playing outdoors, probably in weather that usually, according to rules, would have us indoors so the elements will play into it. Last year, it was humidity, this year it’s going to be cold.”
The tournament kicks off at 9 a.m. with the Auburn women facing the Arizona women at Lagoon Park and the SMU women playing the Wake Forest women at O’Connor. At the same time, the Arizona men will play the Middle Tennessee men and the Alabama men will play Texas Tech, with both matches taking place at Lagoon Park.
At approximately 12:30 p.m., the Ole Miss men will play Fresno State and the Princeton men will play Auburn, with both matches taking place at Lagoon Park, along with the Alabama-Yale women’s match. Princeton and South Alabama women will play at O’Connor.
Most of the matches will follow at Lagoon, except for consolation men’s matches at O’Connor later Friday and on Saturday.
The tournament changed several years ago to accommodate NCAA guidelines, which forced the tournament from a three-day event to a two-day affair, which means late Friday afternoon the second matches will start with doubles play and conclude with the singles matches either Friday evening or early Saturday morning, followed by the third match that will determine the championship.
“I think what’s great about this tournament is that all the matches are usually extremely competitive,” Husack said. “It should be a fantastic weekend.”
Seven of the eight men’s teams are ranked – No. 20 Ole Miss (6-1), with wins over ranked opponents Illinois and Oklahoma State and a loss to then-No.20 Michigan; No. 21 Texas Tech (6-3), with wins over ranked opponents Mississippi State, Illinois and Texas A&M and a loss to Michigan; No 27 Middle Tennessee (10-2) with three shutouts over the last five matches that includes a loss to Iowa; No. 28 Princeton (7-3), coached by former Alabama coach Billy Pate; No. 44 Auburn (9-3), which has won eight of its matches at home; No. 46 Arizona (9-1), riding a four-match win streak; and No. 48 Alabama (7-2), with 4-3 losses to Dartmouth and Minnesota spoiling a perfect record.
“I think this is the deepest draw I’ve seen since coming to this tournament,” Arizona coach Clancey Shields said. “There’s seven teams that are NCAA Tournament teams and in a lot of ways, the rankings don’t reflect how good the teams are in this tournament.”
Among the top-rated individuals are Arizona’s Filip Malbasic, ranked 40th nationally; Texas Tech’s Parker Wynn, ranked 53rd; and Tim Sandkaulen of Ole Miss, ranked 55th. The Princeton duo of Payton Holden and Ryan Seggerman are ranked sixth nationally in doubles, while Sandkaulen and Finn Reynolds are 40th and Matteo DeVincentis and Tyler Stice of Auburn are ranked 44thnationally in doubles competition.
Arizona won the men’s division last year.
“I’ve been coming here for about 15 years, so this is home to me,” Shields said. “Our guys love this event. This is our house. Montgomery is our second home, we love coming here, we love this tournament. I think the people who come out to watch this tournament will see that from our team – that we’re basically defending our home turf.”
This year, he will be joined by the women’s team, which is making its first appearance in the tournament.
“They are an upcoming program,” Shields said. “We were looking at the draw and we both play at 9 a.m. We were like, ‘can we play together?’ It’s really unique to have a men’s and women’s team (from the same school) playing at the same time.”
If rankings are any indication, the women’s favorite is fifth-ranked Princeton (7-1), which avenged a loss to then-No. 7 North Carolina with four shutouts, including a win over No. 6 Pepperdine. Wake Forest (6-1), which lost the Blue-Gray championship last season to Oklahoma State, returns and has five shutouts and a loss to then-No. 25 Ohio State.
Auburn (6-1) is the only other ranked women’s team, with the Tigers’ only blemish at the hands of then-No. 2 North Carolina. The Tigers feature the No. 9 doubles team in the country in Taylor Russo and Selin Ovenc.
The top-rated singles player in the event is No. 17 Brianna Shvets of Princeton. Wake Forest is well represented with the No. 29 singles player in Carolyn Campana and the No. 11 doubles team of Eliza Omirou and Mary Caroline Meredith.
The top-rated doubles team in the tournament is the Yale duo of Jessie Gong and Samantha Martinelli.
The Blue-Gray is nationally recognized by tennis coaches for its competition and its hospitality and by local sports enthusiasts for its community support. The players on the 16 teams are housed during the tournament by 71 host families this weekend. All of the participants were encouraged during a Thursday night banquet to donate tennis rackets as part of a Blue-Gray project to provide tennis equipment to needy high school teams in the area.
To learn more, visit bluegraytennis.com.