SAN ANTONIO – No. 11 Trinity University Men's Tennis hosts yet another tough national test Sunday as it welcomes No. 2 Washington University in St. Louis for a 9:00 a.m. first serve at the
Butch Newman Tennis Center. Sunday's action will be a double-dose as Austin College visits the Al G. Hill Tennis Stadium for the third Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference match of the season.
The Tigers (10-4; 2-0 SCAC) will enter Sunday morning's contest as winners of five straight matchups against NCAA III teams ranked nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), just five days removed from an exhilarating 6-3 affair against No. 13 California Institute of Technology.
First-year
Rafa Candelas Ruiz (Zacatecas, Mexico / American [ESP])—the clincher in Tuesday night's contest—is 5-0 in singles action across the current winning streak while the doubles teams of senior
Hao Nguyen (Sugar Land, Texas / Strake Jesuit) and sophomore
Eric Liao (Taipei, Taiwan / Boca Prep [FL]) in the first line and senior
Cal Hunter (Lafayette, Calif. / Campolindo) and first-year
Conor Kaczmarczyk (Aurora, Colo. / Regis Jesuit) in the third have each also contributed 5-0 records, aiding in three doubles sweeps during that time.
NCAA III Rankings: Knocking on the ITA Top-Ten's Door, New Regional Player Rankings
Trinity remained in 11
th in Monday's release of the ITA's NCAA III rankings, second in the West behind No. 3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (CA). No. 13 Caltech sits third in the region, followed by No. 24 Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (CA) and No. 19 Southwestern University.
Senior
Alessio Azzalini (Rome, Italy / Istituto Visconti) leads the Tigers in Monday's new regional rankings—fourth in the West—ahead of Nguyen at ninth and sophomore
Connor Whittington (Lake Oswego, Ore. / Lake Oswego) at No. 22. The pairing of Nguyen and Liao sits sixth.
SCAC Players of the Week: Nguyen, Liao Reclaim Doubles Crown
For the second time in 2023, Nguyen and Liao were named the SCAC Doubles Team of the Week after posting an undefeated weekend in matches against No. 20 Colby College (ME) and No. 37 Pacific University (OR), both key 8-1 victories for the season. The pair is 8-3 together this season, including a 5-1 mark in line one over the last few weeks.
Liao has been a popular choice for the league office this season as this week's selection marks the fifth appearance in the weekly honor roll after going back-to-back the previous two weeks as the Singles Player of the Week, earning the week two doubles honor with Nguyen as well as the week four doubles recognition with first-year
Aashish Dhanani (Austin, Texas / Westwood).
Preview: Sunday Double-Up – WashU (9:00 a.m.), Austin (2:00 p.m.)
On the Bears: WashU comes to San Antonio for the first time since 2016 on Sunday, though the Tigers and Bears battled in the 2022 ITA Indoor National Championship on the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
In fact, of the last nine meetings since 2008 Case Western has hosted the matchup as many times as Trinity has—three times—as WashU and TU have met in either the NCAA III postseason, ITA Indoors or the Stag-Hen Invitational in six of the nine matchups over the last 15 years.
Over those nine matchups, the Bears have come away victorious in seven. However, Trinity's two victories have come in the lone meeting in the NCAA III postseason—the 2014 NCAA III Quarterfinal—and in the 2016 ITA Indoor.
WashU brings a trio of regionally ranked players for Sunday's matchup between Abhi Ramireddy (No. 2), Phuc Huynh (No. 6) and Jared Phillips (No. 15). As a duo, Ramireddy and Huynh are also second in the Central Region. WashU takes an 11-4 record into Georgetown, Texas to battle No. 19 Southwestern ahead of Sunday's contest.
On the Kangaroos: Austin College will battle Whitworth University (OR) and visit NAIA Our Lady of the Lake University before Sunday afternoon's matchup at the Hill Tennis Stadium. Heading into tonight's contest with the Pirates, the 'Roos are 1-9, 1-2 in SCAC play.
Trinity has collected all of the last eight matchups since 2010, allowing just two points to Austin in that time, the last came in the 2018 SCAC Championship tournament, 5-1.
Looking Ahead: Pirates On Deck
No. 11 Trinity Men's Tennis stands to battle one more nationally ranked team before the end of the regular season: No. 19 Southwestern, who is also charged with hosting the 2023 SCAC Championship April 28-30.
