2010-11 Men's Tennis Schedule

The University of Hawai'i men's tennis program announced its 2010-11 schedule, a schedule filled with a litany of elite teams and players. The schedule promises to be the most challenging schedule ever for the Rainbow Warriors.

 

A total of 16 teams on the schedule were ranked in the final ITA poll, including six teams that finished in the top 15. Meanwhile, the ITA preseason individual rankings were also revealed on Friday. UH will face four players who are ranked in the top 10 in singles, as well as the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked doubles tandems.

 

UH's Dennis Lajola is preseason ranked at No. 106. The three-time all-WAC selection enters his senior season for the Rainbow Warriors and has played at the No. 1 position during his entire career at Hawai'i.  He has helped lead UH to the WAC championship and NCAA Tournament in each of his three seasons.

 

Lajola will be among six UH players participating in the D'Novo All-American Championship (Oct. 2-10) and the ITA Southwest Regionals (Oct. 21-25) to start the fall season. Hawai'i will have its first team event when it plays Stanford in a mock dual match in Waikoloa, Hawai'i, on Nov. 23. The Cardinal finished the season ranked No. 9 and boasts the defending NCAA singles champion in Bradley Klahn, who also participated in this year's U.S. Open.

 

Hawai'i will then open the spring season with home matches against No. 13 Louisville, No. 14 Duke and No. 2 Tennessee, last year's runner-up in the NCAA Championship. Tennessee brings the top-rated player in the nation in John-Patrick Smith, while Duke has No. 2 Henrique Cunha. Cunha and Reid Carleton also give Duke the No. 1 doubles team in the country.

 

The schedule doesn't get any easier when UH hits the road for the first time and travels to Austin to face No. 4 Texas in the ITA Kick-off Weekend . The Kick-off Weekend serves as a qualifier for the National Indoor Championships to be held in Seattle, Feb. 18-20.

 

Also highlighting this year's schedule are matches at No. 6 UCLA (March 11) and a meeting with No. 21 Pepperdine (March 7) in Malibu. The Waves ousted UH from the NCAA Tournament in two of the last three seasons, including this past spring.

 

Western Athletic Conference play opens against Fresno State on April 8, a rematch of last year's WAC title match. The WAC Tournament will be in Boise, Idaho, April 29-May 1.