SAN ANTONIO — The UTSA men's tennis team will open its spring season at No. 4 Texas on Thursday. First serve is scheduled for noon at the Edgar O. and Melanie A. Weller Indoor Tennis Center (at UT Golf Club) in Austin.
That match will mark the 24th all-time meeting between the Roadrunners and the Longhorns, who have won all 23 previous meetings including three last season.
Second-year head coach Rodrigo da Silva will field a young squad in 2017 with just three returning letterwinners in juniors Fabian Brand and Christian Carrillo and sophomore Takeru Watanabe from last year's 3-20 team.
Brand won a pair of singles matches and shared in a team-high six doubles triumphs last year. Carrillo posted three victories in singles play and added five in doubles, while Watanabe was victorious four times in both singles and doubles.
That trio will join forces with nine newcomers, seven of which are true freshmen.
Texas returns all but one letterwinner from the 2016 team that reached the NCAA Round of 16 and finished with a 19-12 record. The Longhorns boast three top-50 singles players and a pair of top-50 doubles tandems.
