Men's Tennis | 1/12/2016 10:51:00 AM
Live stats vs. Texas ABILENE – Abilene Christian men's tennis gets its 2016 spring season rolling today with dual matches in Austin against the No. 12 Longhorns at noon and No. 24 St. Edward's at 4 p.m. Match times in the state capitol are 12 p.m. and 4 p.m.
ACU's dual with the Longhorns is its first since March of 2013 – its final season as a NCAA DII program. Texas won 7-0 that afternoon, however, the only remaining players from that year's dual are ACU seniors
Jason Proctor and
Marco Bensley.
There's been a handful of tournament matches between the Wildcats and Longhorn since then, including this past September's singles contest between No. 94 Harrison Scott and ACU junior
Nico Agritelley in the Round of 16 at the Midland Collegiate Invitational. Scott went on to win the invite but not before battling past Agritelley in three sets, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
In the Midland doubles bracket, Agritelley and freshman Joshua Sheehy defeated Texas' John Mee and Adrian Ortiz, 6-4, in the first round en route to reaching the semifinals.
Mee is ranked 46th in doubles to begin the spring alongside Scott, while the Longhorns' lone senior Michael Riechmann is ranked 114th in singles.
None of the Wildcats' cracked the ITA's preseason rankings despite some individuals producing some outstanding fall results. Agritelley – one of ACU's top-line players from last spring – went 8-5 and won the consolation final of the ITA Texas Regional defeating a variety of opponents from UT Rio Grande Valley, Lamar, Texas Tech, TCU and SMU.
In doubles Agritelley and Sheehy went 4-3 to start the fall, and to close the season Agritelley won the Grand Canyon Invitational with
Henry Adams.
Brad Gleason,
Paul Domanski,
Hunter Holman,
Andrew Hutchinson,
Sebastian Langdon,
Cole Lawson, and Sheehy – who captured the Flight 1 singles title at Grand Canyon – all won fall season titles in either singles or doubles as well.
Sheehy was 6-5 as a singles player with four of his five defeats coming in three sets against top-flight opposition from New Mexico, Tulsa, Rice and TCU.
ACU had a rough time last season in terms of wins and losses, finishing at 10-16 and 1-4 vs. the Southland Conference; however, Agritelley – and All-Conference honoree – came through with 22 singles victories and ended the spring with a 9-1 record.
The Wildcats also bring back two three-year starters in Bensley and Proctor plus sophomores Adams and Domanski, who appeared in a combined 49 dual matches. Adams played in 25 of 26 duals, and Domanski was in the starting lineup 24 times last spring.
During the offseason longtime head coach
Hutton Jones added four newcomers to the roster, including Holman – a sophomore transfer from Texas Tech – plus the freshman class of Langdon, Lawson and Sheehy.
St. Edward's was a regional rival of the Wildcats during their years in NCAA Division II. The Hilltoppers were 11-9 a year ago and 5-0 vs. the Heartland Conference before falling in the NCAA Round of 16 to Hawaii Pacific.
ACU and St. Edward's last played in March of 2013 with the Wildcats winning, 6-3.
