POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – The Marist men's tennis team (15-4) will face No. 9 overall seed Texas (20-5) in the first round of the 2014 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship, it announced Tuesday. The Red Foxes will face the Longhorns on Friday, May 9 at 2 p.m. (EDT) at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center in Austin, Texas. Marist and then #4 Texas faced eachother in the 1999 NCAA Tournament.
This is the Red Foxes' 11th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history, and sixth in the past seven years. Marist enters the tournament having won eight straight matches. The Red Foxes finished this season undefeated in MAAC play for the fifth straight year and won the program’s six consecutive MAAC Regular Season Title.
Marist defeated Monmouth 4-2 on Sunday to win the 2014 MAAC Championship and clinch their berth in the NCAA Tournament. Junior Joseph Dube (Livonia, Mich.) was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding player after he finished the weekend a perfect 3-0. Sophomore Fredrik Bjerke (Oslo, Norway) clinched the match for the Red Foxes at fifth singles after defeating Luke Adamus in three sets, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.
This marks the 56th overall appearance for Texas in the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship. Last year, the Longhorns traveled to College Station and advanced to the second round. Under head coach Michael Center, seventh-ranked Texas (20-5, 4-1 Big 12) won its seventh Big 12 regular season title and first since 2010. The Longhorns closed out the regular season with an undefeated record at home (11-0), seven wins over top-25 opponents and 12 wins in the last 14 regular season matches.
The winner of the Marist-Texas match will advance to the Second Round to play the winner of Mississippi State and Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday, May 10 at 1 p.m. The winner of the Second Round will advance to the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga.
The first and second rounds on May 9 and 10 will be the final tennis matches played at Penick-Allison Tennis Center before the 28-year-old facility is displaced due to construction of UT's new Dell Medical School.
Ticket information (Penick-Allison Tennis Center)
$8 - adults
$6 - youth (ages 2-18), students with UT ID card
Purchase tickets through TexasSports.com: First Round | Second Round
Tickets will also be available for purchase on match day at Penick-Allison Tennis Center.