ABILENE – Abilene Christian's men's and women's tennis teams begin their 2013 fall tournament schedules this weekend with events hosted by
The Racquet Club of Midland and
New Mexico State.
As one of the best NCAA D-II programs, the Wildcats were always invited to enter two to four players each year into The Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational, but now that they're a certified NCAA D-I program 18th-year head coach
Hutton Jones will be sending a record nine players to this prestigious event.
Representing the Wildcats' women's team will be senior
Micah Hermsdorf, junior
Brittney Reed, sophomore
Kaysie Hermsdorf and freshman
Erin Walker, while the men's team will consist of juniors Borja Cortés and
Guilherme Gesser, sophomores
Jason Proctor and
Nicklas Wingord and newcomer
Nico Agritelley.
ACU's opposition at Midland is among the very best in collegiate tennis. The men's field features eight programs that finished last season nationally ranked by the ITA, including No. 23 Texas and No. 25 Tulsa. The women's side is even more stacked with No. 16 Nebraska, No. 18 Texas Tech, No. 20 Baylor, No. 22 Rice and No. 29 Tulsa all coming to West Texas.
The 64-woman singles flight is comprised of 16-seeded players, nine of whom are nationally ranked individuals by the ITA. Tulsa's Samantha Vickers is the top seed and ranked 15th in the country. Second-seeded Natalie Beazant of Rice is ranked 21st.
The men's singles draw is a bit smaller at 45 competitors and will feature No. 10 Soren Hess-Olesen of Texas and No. 21 Andy Bettles of 46th-ranked Boise State. They are the top two seeds.
Cortès, who made all-Lone Star Conference in doubles with Proctor and was an honorable mention in singles, is the lone Wildcat to receive a bye into the second round. First-round matches for the Wildcats include Proctor vs. Ilija Cuie of Wichita State, Wingord vs. Daniel Echeverry of Texas-Arlington, Agritelley vs. Tanner Berkabile of New Mexico and Gesser vs. Brady Bohrnstedt of Oklahoma State.
In doubles, ACU's pairings will be Proctor and Agritelley and Gesser and Cortès. Gesser spent most of last season teamed with
Alfredo Desiati, while Cortès played with all-America
Hans Hach.
The women's teams also will be introducing several new pairings with the loss of
Hannah Kelley and Julia and
Laura Mongin to graduation.
Micah Hermsdorf, who was an all-America doubles player with Kelley, will compete alongside with Reed, who earned her first all-America citation last spring with
Julia Mongin.
Should Reed and
Micah Hermsdorf win their first-doubles match against Kansas, their reward is a second-round match vs. top-seeded and nationally 10th-ranked Beazant and Dominique Harmath of Rice.
Kaysie Hermsdorf spent most of last year partnered with
Laura Mongin, and together they went 13-0 in the spring. Walker, who is the third daughter of ACU assistant coach
John Walker to play tennis at ACU, will be Kaysie's partner at Midland.
First-round singles matches for the women include Walker vs. Kseniya Bardabush of UNT,
Micah Hermsdorf vs. Penn State's Jacqueline Zuhse,
Kaysie Hermsdorf vs. Millie Nichols of TCU and Reed vs. Baylor's McKenzie Craft.
The remaining members of the Wildcats' women's team –
Ansley Boarman,
Nada Marjanovic and
Emily Conrad – will be traveling to Las Cruces, N.M. for the Aggie Invitational. The three-day flighted tournament gets started on Friday at 9 a.m. (MT), and is set to include nine teams and more than 60 student-athletes. ACU's competition there will include teams from UTEP and New Mexico as well as Northern Arizona, Tarleton State, Western New Mexico, University of Arizona and Grand Canyon.
