The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazer Men's Tennis Team Opens Dual Season Sunday
1/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Jan. 31, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- The UAB men's tennis team will open its 2009 dual match season Sunday as the Blazers play host to North Alabama. The match is scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. at the Brook Highland Racquet Club.
Head coach Derek Tarr has what he believes will be one of his deepest teams even though the Blazers don't look necessarily to possess a dominant player at the top of their lineup. Instead UAB will have a squad that will play any combination of eight players filling the six singles positions.
The Blazers are ranked No. 75 nationally entering Sunday's season-opening match.
Tarr and his team are anxious to get the new season started against a Lions' team that is ranked among the top squads in the NCAA Division II ranks.
"We're looking forward to playing North Alabama as our season opener," said Tarr. "We are expecting a very competitive match from them."
The Blazers have just one senior -- Australian Brian Ly -- on its roster. Dan Cornei, Alex Emery and Thomas Petrich are the juniors while Tyrone Ewels, Slawomir Szeremeta and John Hollimon are the sophomores. Daniel Moser and Dennis Ehrlich, the latter enrolling less than a month ago at UAB.
"It will be good to see how our freshmen respond to playing their first dual match," said Tarr, whose team finished 12-3 in dual match play in 2008.
