Dawgs Set To Face SMU To Open NCAA Tournament
May 04, 2016 | Men's Tennis
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The Washington men's tennis team has qualified for the NCAA Tournament this year and will head to Lubbock, Texas where they will face Southern Methodist University to begin play on Saturday May 14th at 8 a.m. PT.
The matches will be regulation dual matches, with three doubles matches consisting of six-game sets played for one point and six single matches played best of three sets at one point per court. No-ad scoring will be used with a seven-point tiebreaker (win by two) played at six-games-all. Once a team wins four points to clinch the win, all remaining matches will stop.
The 40th ranked Huskies were last in action April 20th and 21st at the Pac-12 Team Championships, where the opened up with a win against No. 72 Utah in the first round before falling to No. 12 California in the second.
Mitch Stewart has lead the 17-9 Dawgs this season and currently sits at No. 111 in the latest ITA singles rankings. His 21 singles wins this season are second on the team, with sophomore Jake Douglas leading the team with a 22-11 record and junior Gal Hakak third with 20 wins.
The Huskies have grabbed wins over top programs this season, defeating No. 12 Texas in January, and No. 8 USC in March.
Washington's opponent next weekend, SMU, currently sits at 28th in the country and holds a 20-8 overall record defeating high-ranking opponents like No. 5 Oklahoma State and No. 17 USF this season. They are led by senior Nate Lammons who is ranked 101st by the ITA in singles and owns 25 victories, and junior Hunter Johnson with 22 singles wins and a ranking of 72nd.
In doubles the Mustangs hold two ITA rankings in Yates and Hunter Johnson at 27th, and Lammons and Arkadijs Slobodkins at 49th. They are coached by Carl Neufeld who is in his 23rd season with the program and is one of the winningest active coaches in the NCAA, holding 557 career wins.
After Washington and SMU's match Saturday, host school No. 8 Texas Tech will face New Mexico State at 11 a.m., with the winners of each match facing off Sunday the 15th to determine the regional winner.
This is head coach Matt Anger's 20th trip to the NCAA tournament with the Huskies, guiding them past the NCAA First Round or better 13 times and the Round of 16 five times.
The match will be hosted by Texas Tech who will supply live scoring which can be found through StatBroadcast through the NCAA.
