Piric Releases Men's Tennis Fall Schedule
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami men’s tennis team will play in eight events over five weekends this fall, head coach Aljosa Piric announced Tuesday.
“We are excited to kick off the fall season,” Piric said. “We have a good mix of tournaments with plenty of opportunities for competition with some of the best teams and players in the country. Our objective this fall is to gain a lot of information about our team, their individual games and their habits, so that we can best help them be successful come spring time. All we do in the fall is to prepare our team for competition in the spring. I am excited to watch our team battle, compete and get better.”
The Canes will open their first campaign under Piric on Sept. 23 with the Southern Intercollegiate Championships, a three-day event in Athens, Ga.
Miami has four events in October, beginning with the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men’s All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla. Then, October 7-9, the squad will be split between the Ivy Plus Tournament hosted by Princeton in New Jersey and the Georgia Tech Fall Invitational in Atlanta. The month wraps up with the ITA Regional Championships held in Tallahassee, Fla., Oct. 19-24.
The Hurricanes will be split among three tournaments over the weekend of Nov. 4-6, including the Bulldog Scramble in Athens, Ga., the CBB Collegiate Invitational in Birmingham, Ala., and the Dick Vitale Lakewood Ranch Intercollegiate Tennis Classic held in Sarasota, Fla. UM wraps up its fall season Nov. 11-13 at the Wake Forest Invitational in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Miami returns nine student-athletes from the 2015-16 campaign, led by junior Piotr Lomacki, who played in the NCAA Individual Championships one season ago. The Hurricanes are an experienced team with three seniors in Max Andrews, Jesse Flores and Bernard Tefel, along with five juniors and one sophomore.
“We have a seasoned and talented team,” Piric said. “I know that our seniors feel that they have some unfinished things to do this upcoming year. It’s hard to talk about the outlook because I don’t want to put limitations on what we can do. One thing I do know for sure is that we will be tough competitors and fighters, and we will do everything in our power to prepare, in order to give ourselves the best chance to be successful.”
Piric and assistant coach Petar Danolic are in their first season with UM. Piric came to Coral Gables after five seasons at Old Dominion University, where he was named the 2016 Wilson/ITA Coach of the Year for the Atlantic Region. In his last two seasons in Norfolk, Va., he led the Monarchs to a 37-8 record, propelling the mid-major team from unranked to a season-high No. 28 ITA mark in 2016. A native of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Piric is familiar with the Atlantic Coast Conference after serving as an assistant coach at Georgia Tech for three seasons, where he helped the Yellow Jackets to the NCAA Sweet 16 and a No. 13 ranking in 2011.
2016 Fall Schedule
September
23-25 Southern Intercollegiate Championships, Athens, Ga.
October
1-10 Saint Francis Health System ITA Men’s All-American Championships, Tulsa, Okla.
7-9 Ivy Plus Tournament, Princeton, N.J.
7-9 Georgia Tech Fall Invitational, Atlanta, Ga.
19-24 ITA Regional Championships, Tallahassee, Fla.
November
4-6 Bulldog Scramble, Athens, Ga.
4-6 CCB Collegiate Invitational, Birmingham, Ala.
4-6 Dick Vitale Lakewood Ranch Intercollegiate Tennis Classic, Sarasota, Fla.
11-13 Wake Forest Invitational, Winston-Salem, N.C.
