The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Men's Tennis Team Opens 2007 Dual Season
2/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 1, 2007
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- The UAB men's tennis team will open its 2007 dual match season Friday when the Blazers play host to North Alabama. The match, originally scheduled for Thursday but postponed due to inclement weather, will start at 1:00 p.m. and be played at the Brook Highland Racquet Club.
The season-opening match against the Lions will be just the start of a busy weekend for the Blazers. Following the match with UNA, UAB will head west to take on a pair of Southeastern Conference schools Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
The Blazers will play Mississippi State, ranked No. 54 nationally, in Starkville on Saturday before heading on to Oxford, Miss. to meet the No. 6-ranked Ole Miss Rebels on Sunday afternoon.
UAB is coming off a 12-5 season but head coach Derek Tarr will have to replace his top four players from 2006. Gone are Sebastian Falk, Anton Mavrin, Kristijan Mitrovski and Andre Maier, all of who completed their eligibility last spring. Despite the losses, the Blazers are still getting some preseason notoriety as they begin the '07 campaign with a No. 74 FILA national ranking.
"I think this season is going to be both a challenging and interesting year for us," said Tarr, entering his 19th season at the helm of the Blazer men's program. "We lost our top four players to graduation last year, and we have three returnees. I think this is the first time since I've been coaching that I have lost four top players in the same year."
Of those three returning players, Tarr feels his lone senior, Kruno Despotovski, along with junior Johannes Spangenberg, will vie for spots in the top three of the lineup. His other returning player, junior Adrian Tollstam, is expected to challenge for a spot at No. 5 or No. 6 in the lineup.
Five newcomers will also battle for playing time in the lineup. "I guess what we lack in relative experience," said Tarr, "I think we gain in the fact that these guys have displayed a lot of commitment. Their work ethic has been great and their intensity level in practice has been tremendous. So, we've got this healthy competition amongst the players to try to make the top six in the lineup."
Though there are question marks with the 2007 Blazer squad, Tarr and his team are ready to begin its dual match schedule. "Playing two ranked teams this weekend right at the start of the season presents a good challenge for us," said Tarr, "but it can only make us better. The guys are very excited."
