COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Garnering an NCAA selection in their first season back since 2008, Sun Devil men's tennis hits the road this weekend to take on Baylor University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament hosted by Texas A&M.
First serve between the Sun Devils and Bears is set for Friday, May 11 at 8 a.m. MST, and the matchup can be live streamed on Texas A&M's website.
"It's exciting for these guys to experience this in their first year because it's something a lot of coaches try to accomplish year in and year out," coach Matt Hill said. "To be able to do it in our first year back is a great achievement for this group."
The squads have a 1-1 all-time record in dual match play against each other, with the Sun Devils coming out on top, 4-3, in the last contest at Baylor in 1997.
Holding a 20-9 overall record in 2018, the Bears came out of the Big 12 – one of the toughest conferences in college tennis – with a 1-4 record for fifth place. Their lone conference win came against Texas Tech in a 4-0 sweep in Waco in an ultra-competitive Big 12 that saw all six member schools notch a berth to the NCAA Tournament.
"They're a great program and they have a lot of tradition and history," Hill said. "They've played a tough schedule just like we have, so they're going to be ready to go and battle-tested. It's going to be a really difficult first round."
The Sun Devils had a solid finish to the season, winning three of their last six matches en route to the Pac-12 Tournament.
After a loss in the conference tournament to No. 3 seed USC, the Sun Devils had two weeks to prepare for a tough first round, time off they took full advantage of.
"We worked on a lot of serve return work, a lot of set-play and discipline in their choices, mental consistency on a daily basis," Hill said. "Quite a few different things that we felt would move the needle for us coming into this weekend."
With a squad of nine that has never played in a postseason tournament before, the coaching staff went back to explaining the basics. Coach Hill felt that a tough schedule consisting of four of the current top-5 ranked teams by Oracle/ITA (No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Stanford and No. 5 Texas A&M) prepared the team for postseason play, but there were still ground yet to cover.
"We've played against six of the top-10 teams this year, so it's not much different than the competitive juices and atmosphere you get in those matches," Hill said. "It's going to be really challenging, it's going to take every single guy in order to even have a chance to move forward in the draw we're in. We'll see what these guys are made of."
On top of a team berth into the tournament, senior Michael Geerts was also selected as a singles competitor, set to take the court at Wake Forest University later this month. The selection was well deserved for the Belgian, as his long list of accomplishments in his lone college tennis season speak for itself.
"It's really rare for someone to step into their first year and do as well as he's done," Hill said. "Beating the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the country with some other good wins along the way speaks to himself as a person and a player. We're looking for big things out of him in the tournament and his career moving forward."
First serve on Friday with Baylor is set for 8 a.m. MST. Fans can watch the live stream, follow live stats or keep up with scoring updates on @SunDevilMTennis on Twitter.
First serve between the Sun Devils and Bears is set for Friday, May 11 at 8 a.m. MST, and the matchup can be live streamed on Texas A&M's website.
"It's exciting for these guys to experience this in their first year because it's something a lot of coaches try to accomplish year in and year out," coach Matt Hill said. "To be able to do it in our first year back is a great achievement for this group."
The squads have a 1-1 all-time record in dual match play against each other, with the Sun Devils coming out on top, 4-3, in the last contest at Baylor in 1997.
Holding a 20-9 overall record in 2018, the Bears came out of the Big 12 – one of the toughest conferences in college tennis – with a 1-4 record for fifth place. Their lone conference win came against Texas Tech in a 4-0 sweep in Waco in an ultra-competitive Big 12 that saw all six member schools notch a berth to the NCAA Tournament.
"They're a great program and they have a lot of tradition and history," Hill said. "They've played a tough schedule just like we have, so they're going to be ready to go and battle-tested. It's going to be a really difficult first round."
The Sun Devils had a solid finish to the season, winning three of their last six matches en route to the Pac-12 Tournament.
After a loss in the conference tournament to No. 3 seed USC, the Sun Devils had two weeks to prepare for a tough first round, time off they took full advantage of.
"We worked on a lot of serve return work, a lot of set-play and discipline in their choices, mental consistency on a daily basis," Hill said. "Quite a few different things that we felt would move the needle for us coming into this weekend."
With a squad of nine that has never played in a postseason tournament before, the coaching staff went back to explaining the basics. Coach Hill felt that a tough schedule consisting of four of the current top-5 ranked teams by Oracle/ITA (No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Stanford and No. 5 Texas A&M) prepared the team for postseason play, but there were still ground yet to cover.
"We've played against six of the top-10 teams this year, so it's not much different than the competitive juices and atmosphere you get in those matches," Hill said. "It's going to be really challenging, it's going to take every single guy in order to even have a chance to move forward in the draw we're in. We'll see what these guys are made of."
On top of a team berth into the tournament, senior Michael Geerts was also selected as a singles competitor, set to take the court at Wake Forest University later this month. The selection was well deserved for the Belgian, as his long list of accomplishments in his lone college tennis season speak for itself.
"It's really rare for someone to step into their first year and do as well as he's done," Hill said. "Beating the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the country with some other good wins along the way speaks to himself as a person and a player. We're looking for big things out of him in the tournament and his career moving forward."
First serve on Friday with Baylor is set for 8 a.m. MST. Fans can watch the live stream, follow live stats or keep up with scoring updates on @SunDevilMTennis on Twitter.
NCAA TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE
(Mitchell Tennis Center, College Station, Texas)
First Round
Friday, May 11:
No. 27 BAYLOR (20-9) vs. No. 36 Arizona State (14-10), 10 a.m. CT
No. 5 Texas A&M (22-5) vs Lamar (10-13), 1 p.m. CT
Second Round
Saturday, May 12:
Baylor/Arizona State winner vs. Texas A&M/Lamar winner, 1 p.m. CT