Tulane releases 2017-18 men’s tennis schedule

NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane men’s tennis program released its complete schedule for the 2017-18 campaign in an announcement by head coach Mark Booras on Thursday.

After finishing last season ranked 30th in the final ITA rankings, Tulane is set to play 19 dual matches during the spring against 13 opponents that placed in the top 50 and made NCAA Tournament appearances. Three of those teams placed in the top 10, while seven were listed in the top 20.

“We have a schedule that’s in line with some of the top schedules in the country,” Booras said. “We’ve added more nationally-ranked programs to our slate during the spring which is tremendous. We’re really putting it out there and giving a great challenge to our guys. As our team has become stronger, so has our schedule. We’re all excited about this coming season.”

The fall season will be busy for the Green Wave, which has entries in 10 different tournaments. Tulane opens serve Sept. 22-24 in Tuscaloosa, Ala., at the Alabama Invitational, as well as the Florida Ranked +1 in Gainesville, Fla., on the same dates. In addition to a trio of USTA Futures events, the ITA All-American Championships will be held Sept. 30-Oct. 9 in Tulsa, Okla., before ITA Regionals are held Oct. 19-23 in Baton Rouge, La.

“During the fall, our guys will have a number of opportunities to excel in individual tournaments, pro tournaments and college tournaments,” Booras said. “These will be great tune-ups for the spring season.”

The spring, dual match season will begin at home in New Orleans against Miami (Fla.) on Jan. 19. First serve is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the City Park Pepsi Tennis Center.

“It’s going to be an interesting spring,” Booras said. “That spring break trip will be pretty heavy and we finish heavy after that. We don’t really have anything easy this year, so it will be interesting to see how the guys start the beginning of the year. It’s going to be a great gauge for our team and our players and recruits are going to know that Tulane is a place where you can get some of the best competition in the country.”

Next up will be a pair of matches in Berkley, Calif., for ITA Kickoff Weekend (Jan. 28-29) against California and either Stanford or Oregon.

Following the opener against Miami, the Green Wave’s home schedule includes Mississippi State (Feb. 23), Texas Tech (Feb. 25), Memphis (March 7), Michigan State (March 9), LSU (March 21), Rice (Apr. 7) and USF (Apr. 8).

Tulane’s road matches will be played at Tulsa (Feb. 2), Oklahoma State (Feb. 4), Middle Tennessee (March 3), Vanderbilt (March 4), Auburn (March 15) and a four-match spring break swing at TCU (March 25), SMU (March 27), Baylor (March 29) and Texas (March 31).

The 2018 American Athletic Conference Championships will be held Apr. 19-22 at SMU in Dallas, Texas, while NCAA Tournament play will begin May 11-13. The NCAA Championships will take place May 18-22 in Winston-Salem, N.C.