SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah men's tennis program released its 2019-20 schedule today, highlighted by 17 home contests in the spring and up to 15 match-ups against programs that ranked in the top-75 in the final ITA rankings this past spring season.
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The Utes are coming off their second straight NCAA Tournament berth and are looking to use this year's challenging schedule to head to the postseason for a third consecutive year. Utah will face seven teams, with a possibility of eight, that competed at the 2019 NCAA Championships this past May.
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With a trio of tournaments on tap for the fall season, Utah will open play hosting the Utah Invitational at the Eccles Tennis Center in Salt Lake City. The sole home event in the fall for the Utes will be held Friday through Sunday, Oct. 11-13. Utah will also compete at the ITA Regionals in Denver, which will take place Wednesday-Sunday, Oct. 16-20, and the LMU Invitational in Los Angeles on Friday-Sunday, Nov. 8-10, to round out the fall slate.
Utah will kick off the 2020 spring season at home with a pair of matches on Thursday, Jan. 16 against Idaho and Weber State. The Utes will then prepare for the first road matches of the season the following week, taking on Tulsa at the ITA Kick-Off on Saturday, Jan. 25. Utah will then face either Ohio State or Purdue the next day based on the outcomes of the matches on Saturday.
The Utes will return home for the next five matches, beginning with East Tennessee State on Friday, Jan. 31, followed by a doubleheader the next day against Nevada and Montana. Closing out the home stand, Utah State and Idaho State will travel to Salt Lake City to take on the Utes the following Friday, Feb. 7, in another doubleheader format.
After hitting the road to compete against Denver and New Mexico in mid-February, Utah will be at home for another five-match stretch. The Utes will welcome Iowa on Friday, Feb. 21, while hosting a doubleheader against UC Irvine and Southern Utah on Saturday, Feb. 22.
Utah will have its final doubleheader of the season when Loyola Marymount and Northern Arizona come to town on Saturday, Feb. 29. Completing the stretch of home matches, Utah will square off against BYU in the Deseret Duel on Saturday, March 7.
Before opening Pac-12 play, Utah will close out the non-conference slate taking on UT-Arlington and SMU in Dallas, Texas on Saturday and Sunday, March 14-15.
The remaining regular season will feature eight contests against Pac-12 opponents, six of those eight being teams that competed in the NCAA tournament last season. Utah will stay within the confines of the Eccles Tennis Center for the first half of conference play, beginning with Arizona State on Friday, March 20, and Arizona on Sunday, March 22. Oregon will come to town the following Friday, March 27, while Washington visits Utah on Sunday, March 29.
Utah's final four conference matches will be on the road when they head to the Bay Area schools to take on Stanford and Cal, while closing out the regular season in Los Angeles to face USC and UCLA. The Utes will be put to the test as all four programs advanced to the Sweet 16 at the 2019 NCAA Championships.
The Pac-12 Championships will be held Wednesday through Saturday, April 22-25, in Ojai, Calif. NCAA Regionals will begin the following week beginning on May 1. The complete schedule with match times can be found
here.
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