No. 6 Men's Tennis preview: at Rice
When: Fri., March 12, 2021, 1 p.m. CT
Where: George R. Brown Tennis Center, Houston, Texas
Live Video: N/A
Live Stats: hookem.at/MTN-Stats
Team Records: Texas (11-3, 0-0 Big 12), Rice (5-5, 0-1 C-USA)
Updated Team Stats
Notes
- Rice Series: Texas leads, 73-17-7
Texas and Rice is the fourth-most-played series in UT history behind Texas A&M, Baylor and SMU. The Longhorns have put together 15 straight wins dating back to 2007 including a 6-1 win at the Texas Tennis Center last year.
Last Meeting
No. 3 Texas 6, Rice 1
Sun., March 8, 2020 • Texas Tennis Center • Austin, Texas
Singles – Order of Finish (6,3,2,1,4,5)
1. No. 2 Yuya Ito (UT) def. Sumit Sarkar (RICE), 6-3, 6-4
2. No. 6 Christian Sigsgaard (UT) def. Jacob Eskeland (RICE), 6-3, 6-1
3. Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. Campbell Salmon (RICE), 6-3, 6-0
4. No. 44 Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Karol Paluch (RICE), 1-6, 6-4, 6-3
5. Chih Chi Huang (UT) def. Eric Rutledge (RICE), 7-6 (7-3), 6-3
6. Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Conrad Russell (RICE), 6-1, 6-1
Doubles – Order of Finish (2,1,3)
1. Sumit Sarkar/Conrad Russell (RICE) def. No. 9 Christian Sigsgaard/Yuya Ito (UT), 6-3
2. Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Campbell Salmon/Karol Paluch (RICE), 6-1
3. Eric Rutledge/Wes Barnett (RICE) def. Chih Chi Huang/Cleeve Harper (UT), 6-3
-Texas vs Rice in 2021 tournament play
N/A
-Ranked No. 6
Texas is ranked No. 6 in the latest Oracle/Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Rankings released March 10 by the ITA. It marks the 30th-straight week the Longhorns have been ranked in the top 10 dating back to the beginning of the 2019 season, including 26 of those in the top six.
-ITA Individual National Rankings (Jan. 13)
Texas
Singles
No. 57 Siem Woldeab
No. 78 Micah Braswell
No. 120 Eliot Spizzirri
Doubles
t-No. 43 Payton Holden/Siem Woldeab
Newcomers
No. 5 Micah Braswell
Rice
Singles
N/A
Doubles
N/A
-Braswell tabbed Big 12 Player of the Week
Micah Braswell was named Big 12 Men's Tennis Player of the Week for the week ending March 7. It was the first conference weekly honor of Braswell's career, giving it to the Longhorns for the second-straight week after sophomore Eliot Spizzirri received it last week. Spizzirri has earned it twice this season for a total of three for Texas players. Braswell helped lead Texas to two road win against ranked opponents as the Longhorns won non-conference matches at No. 26 Oklahoma State (4-1) and at No. 28 Oklahoma (4-3), including clinching the Oklahoma State match.
-Sweep in the Sooner state
Texas won a pair of non-conference matches against ranked Big 12 foes in the state of Oklahoma. First the Longhorns secured a 4-1 win at No. 26 Oklahoma State in Stillwater on March 5. Texas captured the doubles point, including a win at No. 1 by the sophomore duo of Eliot Spizzirri and Siem Woldeab over the No. 3 doubles pair in the country, and followed with singles wins by junior Chih Chi Huang at No. 5, sophomore Cleeve Harper at No. 4 and freshman No. 78 Micah Braswell at No. 3. Braswell clinched his second-straight match to finish the win.
The Longhorns followed that by fighting back for a 4-3 victory against No. 28 Oklahoma in Norman on March 7 to win the team's third-straight road match and sweep its two matches in the state of Oklahoma. In tough, windy conditions with sophomore Siem Woldeab out of the lineup due to injury, the Longhorns used four singles wins by junior Nevin Arimilli at No. 6, sophomore Micah Braswell at No. 2, junior Chih Chi Huang at No. 4 and sophomore Evin McDonald at No. 5 for the win. For McDonald, it was his first clinch as a Longhorn.
-Spizzirri named Big 12 Player of the Week
Eliot Spizzirri was named Big 12 Men's Tennis Player of the Week for the week ending Feb. 28 after helping lead Texas to a 4-3 win at Tulane. It marked Spizzirri's second conference weekly honor of the season and of his career after he also earned the honor for the week that ended Jan. 24 when he clinched a win over No. 9 Florida.
-Opening Strong on the Road at Tulane
Texas played its first true road dual match of the season and opened a four-match road stretch with a 4-3 over Tulane at City Park Tennis Center in New Orleans on Feb. 27. The Longhorns used a pair of 6-2 wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles to claim that point and followed with singles wins by junior Nevin Arimilli at No. 6, sophomore No. 120 Eliot Spizzirri at No. 1, and freshman No. 78 Micah Braswell at No. 3, who broke a 3-3 tie to clinch in three sets.
-Topping No. 1 at ITA Indoors
Texas made its third-straight trip to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships from Feb. 12-14, facing three top 10 teams and coming away with a 4-3 win over No. 1 USC on Feb. 13. The Longhorns overcame a 3-0 deficit to the Trojans with four singles wins, three of which went to three sets. The Horns almost pulled off an even more impressive comeback the next day against No. 10 Tennessee, having dropped the doubles point and all six first sets in singles, but came up just short, 4-2, with the clinching match going to 7-5 in the third set and leading 3-1 in the third set of the remaining match. In their opening match against No. 4 Baylor, the Longhorns fell, 4-0, but earned a win over the No. 10 doubles pair in the country and had leads in the ongoing sets of the three unfinished matches with the first sets of two of them going to the Bears in tiebreakers.
-Doubleheader Sweep Over UIW and Texas A&M-CC
Heading into the ITA Indoors, the Longhorns swept a doubleheader against UIW (6-1) and Texas A&M-Corpus Chrisiti (5-0) on Feb. 6. Eliot Spizzirri, Micah Braswell and Cleeve Harper all earned two singles wins for the day, while Leighton Allen earned his first college singles win in dual match play against TAMCC.
-Split of Back-to-Back Versus No. 6 Baylor and Arizona State
In back-to-back matches on January 30-31, Texas lost a tight contest to No. 6 Baylor, 4-1, but rebounded the next day to defeat Arizona State, 4-3. The match against Baylor was closer than the score with the Bears winning the last match in three sets and the Longhorns leading and tied in the two remaining singles matches when play stopped, while the match against the Sun Devils was clinched at 4-1 before the teams played out the last two matches. Texas gave Baylor its first doubles point loss of the season and then used four singles wins over Arizona State.
-Three Straight Trips to ITA National Team Indoor Championships
Texas earned its third straight trip to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships by defeating Liberty (4-1) and No. 9 Florida (4-3) in the Austin ITA Kickoff Weekend on Jan. 22-23. In a rollercoaster of a day against Florida that involved multiple weather delays and a late location change, the Longhorns persevered and topped the Gators on the strength of singles wins from Cleeve Harper, Chih Chi Huang, Siem Woldeab and finally Eliot Spizzirri over No. 8 Sam Riffice in three sets. The ITA Indoors will take place from February 12-14 in Champaign, Ill.
-Completing a Back-to-Back Sweep Against SMU
The Longhorns posted their second 7-0 sweep in as many days as they down SMU by that score at the Texas Tennis Center on Jan. 16. Texas didn't drop a set to the Mustangs and only left one doubles match unfinished at 3-3.
-Season Opening Sweep Over Louisiana
Texas opened its 2021 dual match season with a 7-0 sweep of Louisiana at the Texas Tennis Center on Jan. 15. The Longhorns won all six singles matches on the day with four in straight sets and two that ended in third-set superbreakers. They also took two out of three doubles matches.
-Bama Spring Shootout
The Longhorns headed to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to open spring play in a tournament that was originally scheduled to host individual play between Texas, Alabama and Mississippi State. However, after Mississippi State withdrew, members of Texas and Alabama faced off with the Longhorns winning four out of five titles, including sweeping all 10 doubles matches played on the second day. All three singles champions for the Longhorns in Eliot Spizzirri, Micah Braswell and Leighton Allen posted perfect 3-0 records.
Texas Singles Champions
Flight 1 – Eliot Spizzirri, Micah Braswell (co)
Flight 3 – Leighton Allen
Texas Doubles Champions
Flight 1 – Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab
Flight 2 – Micah Braswell/Cleeve Harper
-ITA Texas Region Rookie of the Year
Sophomore Siem Woldeab was honored as the ITA Texas Region Rookie of the Year in May after he posted a 21-10 overall record in singles, including 11-3 in dual matches, stepping into the starting lineup for a defending National Champion Texas team and playing mostly at No. 3. He registered a high singles ranking of 37 and a high doubles ranking of 11 during the year and collected eight wins over ranked opponents in singles, including four against the top 40, two in the top 17 and one over teammate Yuya Ito in the championship match of his first collegiate tournament at the Gamecock Fall Invitational. He then paired with Ito to win the doubles title at the same tournament, and later paired with Christian Sigsgaard to win the doubles title of the Southern Intercollegiate Championships. In dual match play, Woldeab clinched matches against No. 43 Tulane, Nebraska and Tulsa. In the first dual match of his career on the road at No. 1 Florida, he played No. 3 singles and downed No. 17 Duarte Vale in straight sets to secure the team's first point in a 5-2 win. Woldeab won his last six singles matches of the season, including against opponents on two top-10 teams in No. 8 Stanford and No. 9 NC State. Woldeab has started this dual match season 3-5 in singles, including a straight sets win over No. 12 Duarte Vale of ninth-ranked Florida, while also leading No. 24 Adam Walton of Tennessee in an unfinished match and tied with No. 46 Adrian Boitan of Baylor in the third set of another. He has also posted a 6-5 doubles record, all with Eliot Spizzirri, that includes three top-10 wins with one over No. 3 Matej Vocel and Emile Hudd of Oklahoma State, and two over No. 10 Sven Lah and Constantin Frantzen of Baylor, along with coming up just short in a tiebreaker to No. 1 Daniel Cukierman and Riley Smith of USC.
-Spizzirri Out of the Gate
So far in his early career as a Longhorn, sophomore Eliot Spizzirri has had an excellent start, registering a 28-8 singles record that includes an 20-5 mark in dual match play. In 2021, he is 9-4 in dual match singles play and clinched a 4-3 win for the team over No. 9 Florida by downing No. 8 Sam Riffice in three sets. He later helped Texas to a victory over No. 1 USC with a win over No. 19 Riley Smith. He has played No. 1 in his last three matches and is 1-2 in those. In his first collegiate dual match he opened with a win over No. 72 Andy Andrade at No. 1 Florida to help Texas to a win last year. He had joined the team in January and made an immediate impact, playing primarily the No. 4 spot in the lineup. In tournament play in this season, he recorded a 7-1 mark in singles. Recently he claimed the co-championship of the top flight in singles and the championship of the top flight of doubles with Siem Woleab at the Bama Spring Shootout. He has an 25-16 overall career record in doubles to this point, including 8-6 this season in dual match play where he has combined with Siem Woldeab for three top-10 wins with one over No. 3 Matej Vocel and Emile Hudd of Oklahoma State, and two over No. 10 Sven Lah and Constantin Frantzen of Baylor, along with coming up just short in a tiebreaker to No. 1 Daniel Cukierman and Riley Smith of USC.
-And Here Comes Braswell
True freshman Micah Braswell posted a 12-1 singles record in his first action as a Longhorn this fall, on his way to winning the championship of the Lakes Tennis Invite and co-championships of the TCU Invite and the Big 6 Fall Invite. That included wins over players in the last rankings of last season: No. 48 Parker Wynn, No. 77 Luc Fomba, No. 87 Ilgiz Valiev, No. 104 Mason Beiler and No. 107 Charlie Broom. He followed that up with a 3-0 start to spring play at the Bama Spring Shootout to earn the co-championship with teammate Eliot Spizzirri, along with dual match wins against Louisiana, SMU and Liberty before dropping his first against No. 85 Andy Andrade of No. 9 Florida. Since then he has won eight straight, including wins over No. 104 Stefan Dostanic in Texas' victory over No. 1 USC, and a clinch against No. 86 Henrik Korsgaard in a win at No. 26 Oklahoma State. He also clinched Texas' 4-3 win in its first dual road match of the season at Tulane. He's now 26-2 overall in singles play, including 11-1 in dual matches, along with holding third-set leads when play stopped in two unfinished matches against No. 43 Sven Lah of Baylor.
-Defending National Champions (Still)
Without the NCAA Tournament being played last year, the Longhorns entered the season still as the defending National Champions. Juniors Chih Chi Huang and Nevin Arimilli and redshirt sophomore Cleeve Harper are the lone members remaining from the title team with an influx of new faces arriving since that time. Head coach Bruce Berque enters his third season after guiding Texas to its first team championship in school history.
-Simply the Best
This season Texas will be without two of its staples from the last four years that included a run to the program's first team National Championship in Yuya Ito and Christian Sigsgaard. Both players rank in the top 10 in all-time singles wins at Texas with Ito fifth (111) and Sigsgaard seventh (105) and would have been eligible to return, however Sigsgaard chose to begin his career in professional tennis, while Ito accepted a job opportunity in Japan.
Ito posted overall career marks of 111-34 (.766) in singles and 79-36 (.687) in doubles, including dual match records of 66-18 (.786) in singles and 48-27 (.640) in doubles. He was on pace to set the UT record for career singles victories had his final season not been cut short. His overall .766 career singles winning percentage is the best among the 22 players who have 90 victories or more. Ito was just the third three-time singles All-American (2017, '19, '20) in program history since separate singles and doubles honors began to be recognized in 1979. He finished in the top 10 of the ITA final singles rankings in both of the last two years at No. 8 in 2019 and No. 2 in 2020. He also paired with Christian Sigsgaard to rank as high as No. 4 in doubles in 2020.
Sigsgaard posted overall career marks of 105-41 (.719) in singles and 78-33 (.703) in doubles, including dual match records of 53-28 (.654) in singles and 51-21 (.708) in doubles. He departed Texas with three ITA All-America honors, earning them in singles in 2019 and 2020, and in doubles in 2019. He placed in the top 10 of the ITA final rankings in singles and doubles both of those years, finishing at No. 6 in singles in 2019 and 2020 and in doubles in 2019, along with No. 9 in doubles in 2020.
-Year Four at the Texas Tennis Center
Texas has begun its fourth season of play at the Texas Tennis Center and with a 7-1 mark in 2021 has compiled a 41-4 overall record, including a 9-0 mark in a shortened season in 2020 that featured wins against No. 8 Stanford, No. 18 Georgia and No. 21 Florida State. The Longhorns finished 2019 with a 15-1 mark there, including wins over No. 1 Ohio State, No. 6 Baylor and No. 12 Columbia, along with three NCAA Tournament victories. The lone loss came to No. 15 USC. During its inaugural season, Texas posted a 10-2 record, including winning the 2018 Big 12 Tournament.
