Hosting of ITA Regional Highlights 2009-10 Slate
9/1/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan men's tennis team has released its schedule for the 2009-10 season, head coach Bruce Berque announced Tuesday (Sept. 1). The home schedule features six Big Ten dual matches, four non-conference dual matches and also includes an ITA Regional, which Michigan will host at the Varsity Tennis Center in mid-October. The Wolverines reached the NCAA second round after winning eight of their last11 matches last season.
"The caliber of teams we will compete against this year out of conference may be the best it's ever been while I've been here," Berque said. "It will be very challenging, but our guys are looking forward to it."
Michigan's tough non-conference slate begins with two dual matches in Raleigh, N.C. -- against Vanderbilt on Jan. 23 and North Carolina State the following day. The next weekend, the Wolverines travel to Lexington, Ky., to compete in the National Team Indoors Qualifier against Kentucky and either Wake Forest or Minnesota.
Michigan returns to Ann Arbor for the first home dual match of the season when it hosts Pepperdine on Feb. 6. The Maize and Blue will then host Notre Dame and North Carolina back-to-back Saturdays, before ending the non-conference portion of the schedule on the road against Wake Forest, California-Berkeley and Texas.
The Wolverines open the conference slate against Michigan State on March 20, the first of six straight home dual matches. Michigan will have a brief reprieve from conference action when it hosts Stanford on March 25, but jumps right back into Big Ten play that weekend, hosting Minnesota on March 27 and Iowa on March 28, followed by Northwestern and Wisconsin the following week.
Four of Michigan's final five matches will take place on the road, highlighted by trips to Penn State on April 9 and arch-rival Ohio State on April 11. The Wolverines close the conference slate at Illinois and Indiana on April 23 and April 25, respectively. After a three-day break, the Wolverines will return to Bloomington, Ind., to compete in the 2009 Big Ten Championships, held April 29 through May 2 at Indiana.
The fall season officially kicks off Sept. 18 in Saint Helena, Calif., with the Napa Valley Invitational -- the first of several tournaments that members of the Wolverines will participate in before the New Year.
