The collegiate season is really hitting off in the early part of March, with the majority of matches that schools are playing being conference matches.
There are a total of 30 conferences in Division 1 tennis, and each conference hosts their respective conference tournament at the end of April. We have been following our Aussie players who represent schools that are members of the following conferences:
American Athletic Conference (AAC): Kody Pearson, Connor Di Marco, Callum Gale (Tulsa), Jeremy Taylor (Memphis), Elijah Cham, Thomas Pavlekovich-Smith, Grace Schumacher (South Florida), Cooper White, Stefani Webb (Central Florida)
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC): Alex Bulte (Florida State University), Matt Harper, Michael Shepheard (Virginia Tech)
Big-12: Chase Ferguson (Oklahoma State)
Conference USA: Eloise Swarbrick (Middle Tennessee)
Horizon League: Tom Ciszewski (IUPUI)
Ivy League: Thomas and Matthew Bosancic (Princeton)
Pac-12: Josh Charlton (Oregon), Eric Padgham (Arizona State)
South-Eastern Conference (SEC): Enzo Aguiard (Alabama), Casey Hoole (South Carolina), Chen Dong (Louisiana State University), Amy Stevens (Vanderbilt), Catherine Aulia, Pat Harper (Tennessee)
Sun-Belt: Jack Celements (South Alabama)
Western Athletic Conference: Chris Lawrance (University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley)
West Coast Conference: Tom Hann (Gozanza)
South Carolina (#6) has played two of their biggest matches of the season so far defeating Kentucky (#5) 4-3 at their campus in Lexington last Friday moving them up to #5 on the ITA rankings.
The Gamecocks also defeated Ohio State (#4) 4-1 on Wednesday at home, a team that have been ranked as high as #1 in the country earlier this year. Wednesday’s victory has put the Gamecocks to 13-1 for the season and they will likely overtake Ohio State in the rankings to move to #4 in the country.
The Gamecocks will next play against Alabama (#66) at home on Friday at 3:00PM Eastern Standard Time; a powerhouse of the SEC where Melbourne’s Enzo Aguiard (#63) is playing at the top of the line-up and was on our Play USA podcast last year. All streaming will be available on the South Carolina Men’s Tennis website:
gamecosksonline.com/sports/mten/schedule/ where you can get all of the action and will feature Queenslander Casey Hoole playing at #3 doubles and #5 singles. Casey will be our featured guest on episode 3, our April edition of Play USA.
We will also catch up with South Carolina’s Men’s Head Coach, Josh Goffi which will be aired on our live radio show (8-10pm Eastern each Monfay night on SEN Radio) during our college wrap.
Over to the women’s side and Vanderbilt (#17) had two wins on the road against both Ole Miss (#58) and Mississippi State, defeating both schools 5-2.
Amy Stevens won both of her matches helping the Commodores move up to #17 in the country and to 8-3 for the season. The Commodores will next play against Tennessee at home on Friday at 3:00PM Eastern Standard Time. Vanderbilt and Tennessee have a long lasting rivalry that has spanned decades and we will see both of our Aussies Amy Stevens (Vanderbilt) and Catherine Aulia (Tennessee) playing at opposing schools.
Both Amy and Catherine played side-by-side at the World University Games back in December. Streaming will be available via the Vanderbilt Women’s Tennis homepage by visiting: vucommodores.com/sports/wten/schedule/
We will post highlights of our Aussies in action this week which will be posted all over our social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Stay tuned for our March edition of our Play USA podcast where we chat to Catherine Aulia at Tennessee which will be dropped this week.
If you missed last week’s live show broadcasted out of Indian Wells, you can listen via our website: Radio Show | January - June 2023 | The First Serve or via your preferred podcasting platform on Google and Apple Podcasts or Spotify which includes our college wrap and interview with Warrnambool’s Oliver Good, Head Men’s Coach at Idaho State University.
If you would like to contact Oliver regarding college placement at Idaho State, you can find his contact information via the Idaho State Men’s Tennis website: Oliver Good - Head Men's Tennis Coach - Men's Tennis Coaches - Idaho State University Athletics (isubengals.com)
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