The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Men's Tennis Vaults into Omni Hotels Collegiate Rankings
3/22/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
BIRMINGHAM - Thanks to some impressive wins during the last few weeks, the UAB men's tennis team has vaulted into the Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings, as announced by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). The Blazers debuted at the No. 46 spot.
In the Blazers 14 matches so far this season, five of them have been against ranked opponents. At the Blue-Gray Collegiate Classic in mid-March, UAB pulled an upset on No. 37 Rice in the first round. UAB took an easy 4-1 win over the Owls. The Blazers went on to face No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 26 Indiana State in the same tournament. The Blazers fell to both opponents, but not before giving them a threat in the 4-2 loss to the Irish and 4-3 loss to Sycamores.
The Blazers have also faced 15th-ranked Misissippi State and 59th-ranked UNLV this season.
UAB senior Alex Jung and freshman Tobi Klein debuted at No. 35 in the doubles portion of the Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings. The tandem is 7-3 on the season.
The tandem's biggest win of the season came at the Blue-Gray Collegiate Classic on March 15, when they beat fifth-ranked Javier Taborga and Casey Smith of Notre Dame, 9-8. At the same tournament, the senior-freshman duo defeated 26th-ranked Indiana State's Stefan Hirn and David O'Connel, 8-6.
This week marked the first computer rankings for Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Division I rankings this season. This is an entirely different ranking than the poll, which has been administered the first two months of the season. The reason a poll/vote is done until this point is because there are not enough results to warrant a computer ranking until this point in the season. The more results there are, the better the ranking is. The first computer ranking has always debuted in mid-March.
The Blazers are back in action this Sunday, as they host Vanderbilt in a 1 p.m. match. The match, originally scheduled to be played at the Lakeshore Foundation Tennis Facility will now be held at the Brook Highland Racquet Club.
