George Washington Athletic Director Patrick Nero announced that Torrie Browning has been named as the new women’s head coach. Browning served as the interim head coach of both the women’s and men’s programs for the majority of last season after Greg Munoz resigned five matches into the season. Browning guided the men’s team to an Atlantic 10 Championship and a NCAA Tournament berth while the women’s team finished 8-15 and lost in the semifinals of the conference tournament. As a side note I just noticed that Munoz is now a tennis coach and personal fitness trainer in Indonesia.
Torrie Browning has been named head coach of our squad! #RaiseHigh https://t.co/5MnnQuAtbB pic.twitter.com/Cau9gMB4KPGW Women’s Tennis (@GWWomensTennis) July 6, 2016
Appalachian State Athletic Director Doug Gillin announced the hiring of Blake Mosley as the Mountaineer’s new women’s head coach. Mosley had spent the previous three years as an assistant coach at Colorado and was also a head coach at Chaminade University (D2) for five years from 2007-2012. Gillin replaces Colin Crothers whose contract wasn’t renewed after 19 seasons.
Blake Mosley has been named @APPWTennis head coach! Details at https://t.co/t1RtNf6XLX! #DefineTheMoment pic.twitter.com/Cyp35SbpmpApp State Athletics (@appstatesports) July 6, 2016
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga now has an opening for a women’s head coach after Jeff Clark announced his resignation. Clark left Chattanooga after nine seasons to accept the position of head of the tennis program at The McCallie School which is an elite private boarding school in Chattanooga (Ted Turner is a notable alumni).
I’m still showing 13 men’s head coaching openings and 14 on the women’s side – full list here.
Radford released its 2017 dual-match schedule which includes out of conference matches against NCAA Tournament participants George Washington, Coastal Carolina, and South Carolina State.
Pro Circuit Highlights
Treat Huey (Virginia ’08) and his doubles partner Max Mirnyi advanced to the semifinals at Wimbledon after a 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-3 win over Jonathan Marray and Adil Shamasdin. Huey’s previous best performance at a Grand Slam was a quarterfinal at the 2014 Australian Open and 2013 US Open. Huey and Mirnyi will meet the top seeded team of Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
Rajeev Ram (Illinois ’03) and Raven Klaasen also moved into the semifinals at Wimbledon after upsetting the Bryan Brothers (Stanford ’08) 7-6(2), 6-1, 7-6(4). Ram, who spent one season at Illinois in 2003, also made the semifinals at the US Open in 2014. Ram and Klaasen will face Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin
Virginia rising junior Collin Altamirano hadn’t won a main draw match on the Futures circuit this year going into this week but he’s played his way into the quarterfinals at the De Haan, Belgium, F4 Futures. Altamirano defeated Bart Stevens 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the first round and Texas Tech’s Jolan Cailleau 6-4, 6-2 in the second round. Next up for Altamirano is #1614 Yannick Vandenbulcke.
Virginia commit Carl Soderlund won his first matches at the Challenger level when he won twice today in Bastad, Sweden. Soderlund started off the day by defeating #316 Christian Lindell 7-5, 6-2 in a match that started on Tuesday but was halted at 5-5 in the first due to weather/darkness. Then a few hours later he returned to the court and beat #113 Thomas Fabbiano 6-4, 7-6(4) to advance to the quarterfinals where he will face #159 Daniel Gimeno-Traver.
Roberto Quiroz (USC ’15) won a Futures title in Cali, Colombia, last Saturday and then on Sunday he was back on court playing qualies at the $50K+H Cali, Colombia, Challenger. Quiroz won a pair of matches on Sunday and then officially qualified on Monday. Quiroz ran his winning streak to nine on Wednesday after knocking off #161 Gonzalo Lama 6-4, 6-4 and he’ll now face #360 Jose Hernandez-Fernandez (North Carolina ’12) on Thursday in the second round.
Lukas Ollert (Auburn ’15) picked up his first ATP point at the Telfs, Austria, F1 Futures with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Gabor Borsos.
Nick Crowell, asst. coach at Florida State, is new men's coach at OU. Announcement is up on OU's web site.
What in the world is Oklahoma doing? How can they not have a coach by this point? Any leads at least or anyone rumored for USF?
Maybe because Florida has the most clay courts? The crazy things is the private clubs where the 16s play are much nicer than the public 18s site. The long tournaments with 192 draw have to be played over summer or Christmas break as some tennis players still go to real school. Would be nice to have Nat Clays in Dec in FL but the hotels and sponsors need visitors in July. What's worse is that Clays and Hardcourts are starting later this year while schools are starting earlier. Atlanta is a big area for tennis, and most metro Atlanta public schools start during Kzoo. There is one metro district that starts before Kzoo. Each year it gets harder for high level players to balance tennis and their education. Public school players used to miss a couple Mondays and Fridays a month for long weekend sectional and national tourneys-up to 20% of classes. Now with Kzoo some kids might miss a whole week or have to pull out with an "injury" or "illness." Cant miss more than 2 days of school without a doctor's note. Usually spring is when players miss more school, so if players made As/Bs in the fall, teachers didnt care if "sick" kids came back with a suntan. However, new year, new teachers-dont want your kid to be labeled the slacker or skipper because he does not show up the first week of class. Got to save some days for OVs too. Glad this is our last year of the balancing act-lot more home/virtual schoolers in the younger classes.
In Florida for vacation. It's hot and humid. Why in the world does USTA have the Juniors play Clay Court Nationals in July in Florida? They run a great tournament but there are dozens of other places they can play that tournament this time of year and not have 12 kids go to the hospital each year for sunstroke, dehydration and cramps.
Outside of Georgia I don't really have an overwhelming favorite but I like to see the under the radar teams do well – Oregon, Washington, Purdue, Indiana, Drake, Wichita State, South Florida, San Diego, Tulane, Memphis, the Ivy League schools, etc.
I too am curious about this Bobby
Bobby which college team is your favorite? Which team do you find yourself rooting for during the season? I get the feeling you'll pick Georgia but assume you can't pick them haha