Over the weekend, the Texas men’s tennis team participated in the ITA Texas Regional Championships with berths in the ITA Indoor Championships next month at stake. The highlight of the tournament for Texas came when the team of Jean Andersen and Ed Corrie were able to take home the doubles championship, and with it, an automatic spot in the 16 team doubles draw at the ITA Indoor Championships that begin in just a week.
They were able to fend off the fourth ranked team in the nation, and then come back from losing the first set to win the final match in three sets. “Jean and Ed work really well together,” head coach Michael Center said of his championship caliber duo. “They made some great plays when they needed them. I’m really happy for those guys.”
Now Corrie and Andersen will have an opportunity to take home some more hardware next month at the second of three national championship opportunities of the season. Senior Kellen Damico and redshirt freshman David Holiner just missed an opportunity to play their teammates in the final match after losing the semifinal by the score of 9-8.
Andersen and Corrie were able to win the doubles championship after both losing in the round of sixteen in close three set matches. As for Kellen and Holiner, they were also able to rebound after loses in the singles draw to both make it to the consolation finals match, though they did not play the final match.
“They suffered early losses in the main singles draw, but they played hard in the back (consolation) draw,” Center said of his steadily improving team. “They served for the match in the doubles semifinal, and thought they did not win the match, it was evident they had really improved by the end of the draw.”
The men’s tennis team will be busy over the next week in preparation for the ITA Indoor Championship starting on November 4th.
“[Andersen and Corrie] deserve the opportunity to play in New City at the USTA National Tennis Center.” Center said of his championship caliber duo, and their opportunity to play in the world class facilities in New York. Until then, they will be hard at work to make sure that they are able to retain their focus and improve on their play that has gotten them this far.
