UTRGV tennis returns to the courts Friday to kick off the 2021 season after a nearly eleven-month break from play dating back to last March.
In a phone interview Wednesday, both UTRGV Women’s Head Coach West Nott and Men’s Head Coach Dann Nelson expressed their excitement to return to action.
“It’s really exciting for us to get back on out to the court,” Nott said. “Just grateful for the opportunity presented to us.”
“It’s almost like we’re a little bit back to normal,” Nelson said. “As far as getting to having the opportunity to compete and that is what we’ve been missing for so long, but it is here now, and we have to make the most of it.
The women’s tennis team will begin their 21-game season hosting Lamar University at 1 p.m. Friday at the Orville Cox Tennis Center.
As the team looks to improve from their 1-11record from a season ago, they will face 11 other Texas institutions including Tarleton State, Stephen F. Austin, Texas State, Sam Houston, University of Houston, Texas A&M Kingsville, Concordia, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Prairie View A&M, UTEP, and doubleheaders against Texas A&M Corpus Christi and St. Mary’s.
“There’s a lot of great teams out there,” Nott said. “I would certainly say we’re a young team and we’re underdogs in a lot of these matches so we are going to be scratching and clawing to compete with these guys and see what we could do.”
The women’s will also take part of three WAC Clusters as part of the conference season that will
kick off on March 19 and 20 in St. George, Utah versus New Mexico State and Chicago State.
Next, they will host Grand Canyon University and Tarleton State in a home WAC Cluster on April 1 and 3.
They will close out the season in Las Cruces, New Mexico facing off against Seattle U and Dixie State on April 16 and 17.
The men’s tennis team starts action bright and early on the road at 9 a.m. Friday at the North Side Tennis Center in San Antonio versus Our Lady of the Lake and will play a second match at 1 p.m. against Howard Payne.
They will then return at 10 a.m. Saturday in Edinburg to host Louisiana for their first home match of the season.
The non-conference slate includes matches versus Lamar, Southern Miss, Rice, Texas A&M, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Concordia, Abilene Christian, Incarnate Word, UTSA and doubleheaders against Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Prairie View A&M.
For conference play, the team will take part of two WAC Clusters. The first will take place on March 26 and 27 in Phoenix as they match up against Seattle U and New Mexico State.
The Vaqueros would then host a cluster on April 9 and 11 as they welcome Chicago State and Grand Canyon University.
“We have a really good schedule,” Nelson said. “We have a competitive team coming back from last year. We didn’t lose anybody in the top-six and then we added three new players, so we really have some high hopes for this year.”
A news release Wednesday from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Department of Intercollegiate Athletics announced that fan attendance will be capped at 10% for home matches to allow proper social distancing and face masks that cover both the mouth and nose must be worn at all times.
“If it’s 10%, we’ll take it,” Nelson said. “It’s great to play in front of fans, it’s great to play at home. To have some fans in the stand it’ll be great.”
Entrance to the Orville Cox Tennis center will be for the first 20 fans.
For more updates and highlights, visit GoUTRGV.com.
For Vaquero Radio, I’m Luis Rubio.
