Red Raiders open NCAA Tournament against Louisville

LUBBOCK, Texas – Making their 19th overall NCAA Tournament appearance this weekend, the No. 31 Texas Tech Red Raiders will open their first round of the postseason with a match against the No. 37 Louisville Cardinals on Saturday, May 6 at 9 a.m. in Columbus, Ohio. Earning a two-seed into the Columbus Regional, Tech is facing three-seeded Louisville first, and if the Red Raiders win, they will play the winner of one-seed and No. 3-ranked Ohio State and four-seeded East Tennessee State on Sunday.

The Red Raiders are coming off a heartbreaking, 4-3 loss to Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals. In the match, Tech won its 15th doubles point of the season with victories at courts two and three. Then, Red Raiders' Reed Collier and Olle Wallin posted singles wins at courts four and one, respectively, as Wallin collected his ninth ranked victory of the year.

Big 12 award were released last week as Wallin was named All-Big 12 First Team in singles for the first time in his career. He also earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Singles Tournament as announced by the ITA on Tuesday afternoon. In addition, the duo of Piotr Pawlak and Franco Ribero were named Big 12 Champions at court two in doubles, while freshman Lorenzo Esquici won the Big 12 position champion honor at court five in singles.

Leading the team in dual singles is Esquici with 15 wins, followed by Wallin with 13 and Ribero with 12. In dual doubles, the Pawlak/Ribero duo tallies a team-best 14 victories followed by the pairing of Dimitrios Azoidis and Collier on the top court with eight.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
No. 34 Louisville is coming into this weekend's contest at 16-11 overall while holding a 6-6 ACC record. The Cardinals have gotten key wins over Northwestern, Miami, Michigan State, NC State and Notre Dame. Louisville recently defeated the Fighting Irish in the ACC Championship Tournament, 4-3, to advance to the quarterfinals of the competition where they fell to Duke. Leading the Cardinals in dual singles is Etienne Donnet with 18 wins, followed by Fabien Salle with 15. In dual doubles, the duo of Donnet and Sergio Hernandez have a team-best eight wins, while two other teams – Hernandez/Natan Rodrigues and Rodrigues/Salle – both have seven wins apiece. Louisville also has three players ranked in singles as Donnet is No. 42, Salle is No. 58 and Rodrigues rounds it out at No. 85. In doubles, the Rodrigues/Salle pair are ranked at No. 12 in the nation.

Opponents in the Rankings
Singles
Ohio State
No. 11 Cannon Kingsley
No. 22 JJ Tracy
No. 24 Justin Boulais
No. 34 James Trotter
No. 41 Alexander Bernard

Louisville
No. 45 Etienne Donnet
No. 73 Fabien Salle
No. 77 Natan Rodrigues

Doubles
Ohio State
No. 16 Andrew Lutschaunig/James Trotter
No. 20 JJ Tracy/Andrew Lutschaunig
No. 21 Justin Boulais/Robert Cash

Louisville
No. 12 Natan Rodrigues/Fabien Salle

ADMISSION/FACILITY INFORMATION
Admission and parking are free all weekend for fans attending the matches. Teams are set to play outdoors at the Auer Tennis Complex. If the matches get moved indoors, they will be played inside the Ty Tucker Tennis Center.

FOLLOW ALONG
Live stats for all matches can be found here, while live video will be available here. Follow @TexasTechMTEN on Twitter for updates and scores of the matches.

Red Raiders open NCAA Tournament against Louisville

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Players Mentioned

Dimitrios Azoidis

Reed Collier

Lorenzo Esquici

Piotr Pawlak

Franco Ribero

Olle Wallin

Texas Tech University Athletics