TULSA, Okla. – The seventh-seeded UTSA men’s tennis team (10-9) will kick off the program’s first appearance in the American Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Championships at 9 a.m. (*schedule moved up due to weather forecast) on Thursday, April 18, against No. 10 Tulane (7-14) in first-round competition. All matches in the championships will be played at Tulsa’s at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center. The Roadrunners moved back into the national ITA rankings this week at 73rd.
Following the Action in Tulsa
Every match in the championships leading up to the final will have live video via Tulsa’s track.tennis setup. Fans can watch the Roadrunners live against the Green Wave here. In addition, Tulsa will host live scoring and the UTSA/Tulane match can be found here.
The winner between UTSA and Tulane will move on to the Quarterfinal round for a 10 a.m. Friday, April 19, matchup with second-seeded SMU (17-9), the Mustangs rank 42nd in the latest ITA standings.
About the Roadrunners
UTSA’s first season in the American Athletic Conference pitted the Roadrunners against a challenging slate that included seven ranked teams this season. After getting things moving with back-to-back neutral site wins over defending Pac-12 Champion Utah, the Roadrunners saw some setbacks amidst an 11-match stretch away from San Antonio. However, UTSA made some adjustments and went 6-2 at home to close out the regular season, including wins over then 60th-ranked Utah State and No. 62 Oregon. The Roadrunners first entered the rankings at No. 69 and are No. 73 heading into this week’s conference tournament.
The Roadrunners’ top record belongs to Veracruz, Mexico junior Miguel Alonso, who has been dominant mostly on court six while collecting a team-best 12-2 record. Mostly wrangling the second line, Lisbon, Portugal junior Tiago Torres is 10-6 and has won his last four outings. Also proving dominant down the stretch with four consecutive wins, Oporto, Portugal sophomore Tomás Pinho is 9-8 on the year, while Danijal Muminovic and Alan Magadan are 9-8 and 8-5, respectively. In doubles play, Garrett Skelly and Jackson Ross have won four straight and are a team-best 9-3. Also making moves since a lineup flip in March, Magadan and Alonso are 6-1 on court three.
The Roadrunners are 28-26 in conference tournaments between Conference USA and the Southland Conference. Last season at the CUSA Championships, UTSA advanced to the final for the first time since 2015 but finished as runner-up to top-seeded Middle Tennessee. UTSA’s last conference championship was a 2015 CUSA title after winning the Southland in 2013, 2010 and 2002.
Series with Tulane
The Roadrunners and Green Wave will meet for the eighth time to open this tournament. Tulane leads the series 6-1 and the series has never been played in San Antonio. Heading into another addition to the set, Tulane leads 3-0 on neutral courts. The last meeting was a 4-0 Green Wave win in New Orleans during the 2021 season.
About the Tulane Green Wave
You can’t let the current record be deceptive, this is largely the same team that ended last season at 44th and finished as AAC runner-up in 2023 to SMU. A perennial fixture, Tulane has been the No. 2 seed in five of the last six AAC tournaments. This season, the Green Wave dropped all four of their ranked matches, including three of the last four to end the season with losses against SMU, Memphis and Middle Tennessee.
The Green Wave have gotten early opportunities while winning 68 percent of doubles matches – paced by the top court, Alex Bancila and Luc Hoeijmans at 10-7. Meanwhile Benji Jacobson and Billy Suarez went 9-3 on two and Luka Petrovic and Sam Scherer were 9-2 on three. In singles action, Fynn Kuenkler leads Tulane in wins at 9-9, while Bacila has an 8-9 record and Hoeijmans (7-7) and Petrovic (7-10) both have seven victories.
Check out the championships page for more info and review the bracket here.
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