Texas Tech University Athletics
Men's Tennis Advances to NCAA Tournament
June 21, 1999 | Men's Tennis
May 6, 1998
LUBBOCK, Texas - The Texas Tech University men's tennis team has advanced to the 1998 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championships. The Red Raiders will play Southern Methodist in the first round in Region VI on Friday, May 15th at the University of Texas in Austin. The regional will continue through May 17th.
"This is the fourth bid in five years for our squad and this is the most proud I've been of a team," said Tim Siegel, director of tennis. "SMU is one of the hottest teams in the country and we beat them earlier in the year."
"The team has fought through a lot this year and I'm proud of the fact they were able to make it to the NCAAs. Our strength of schedule has helped us as most of the team's we've played have been ranked in the top 40." The No. 55 Texas Tech squad currently holds an 11-14 record, after advancing to the second round of the Big 12 Conference Tournament. The team enters the region as the No. 7 seed. SMU is currently ranked 25th nationally and is the No. 2 in the region. Taking the top seed is No. 11 Texas A&M, Baylor (#28) is in the third slot, Arkansas (#36) is fourth, Southwestern Louisiana (#33) is fifth, TCU (#44) is sixth and Arkansas-Little Rock (#61) is eighth.
Making up the lineup for the tournament are junior Petar Danolic (Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina) at No. 1, senior Tylir Jimenez (Richardson, Texas) at No. 2, sophomore Ryan Shupe (Greensboro, North Carolina) at No. 3, sophomore Adam Baranowski (Toronto, Canada) at No. 4, freshman Wojtek Stasiak (Parmatta, NSW, Australia) at No. 5, sophomore Carey Biorkman (Ventura, Calif.) at No. 6 and senior Doug Lacy (Dallas) as the alternate and in doubles with Jimenez. The other two doubles units are Shupe-Baranowski at No. 1 and Danolic-Biorkman at No. 3.
This marks the third consecutive year Texas Tech has seen post-season play, and the fourth time in five years. Last year, the team also faced SMU in the first round of the NCAA tournament, falling 2-4 to end the season at 11-14. Jimenez, Danolic, Baranowski, Shupe and Lacy all played in the match, with Jimenez and Baranowski scoring Tech,s two points. Siegel has now guided the squad to the tournament in four of his six seasons at Tech.
The Red Raiders played SMU in March of this year as part of the Corpus Christi Invitational. Tech claimed the 4-3 victory. Danolic, Stasiak, Biorkman and Baranowski all tallied points in singles.
In the Big 12, eight of the 10 squads advanced to the tournament along with the Red Raiders. Texas A&M and Baylor will join Tech in Region IV, while Kansas (#40), Colorado (#48), Oklahoma State (#26) and Oklahoma (#46) will compete in Region V. Texas advanced automatically to the finals after compiling a 24-4 record and a No. 5 national ranking.
The winner of each regional will advance to the finals May 23-31 at the University of Georgia. Each team was selected based on won-lost record, strength of schedule and eligibility and availability of student-athletes. A total of eight regions make up the tournament.
1998 NCAA Men's Tennis Championships
REGION I REGION II REGION III REGION IV REGION V REGION VI REGION VII REGION VIII Harvard S. Carolina Florida Duke California Texas A&M Pepperdine UCLA Miami Virginia Comm. Tennessee Northwestern Oklahoma St. SMU Boise State Washington Virginia Tech Virginia Auburn Notre Dame Tulsa Baylor San Diego St. UC Santa Barbara Columbia N. Carolina Kentucky Purdue Kansas Arkansas Fresno State Arizona State Penn State Gerogia Tech Alabama Michigan Oklahoma SW Louisiana UNLV Arizona Princeton Florida State S. Alabama Minnesota Colorado TCU New Mexico Oregon Wake Forest S. Florida Louisville Texas Tech Clemson Tulane Wisconsin Arkansas-LR
