CINCINNATI - Eric Toth, head coach of the University of Cincinnati tennis team, has announced his team's 2020 schedule, a slate that will include 22 matches including 10 that will be played at home. The Bearcats are coming off a season in which they posted a 12-11 overall record and reached the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference Championships.
"Our schedule for the upcoming season will definitely challenge this group," Toth said. "We'll run into three teams that will likely be pre-season Top 25 teams and play seven schools that finished last year within or just outside the Top 100. We have a very good group that is continuing to put in the work on and off the court and I'm very optimistic that we can achieve at a level that when it is all said and done we will be very successful this season."
The schedule opens in January with five matches overall and the first four away from home, including duals with Army and Akron in Akron, Ohio, January 18 and January 19, respectively. The following week, a trip to Lexington, Ky., on January 21 will see the Bearcats face Kentucky, who finished last year ranked #27 in the ITA Top 75. After a trip to Butler on January 24, the Bearcats will play their home opener on January 31 against Miami (Ohio) at the Western Tennis & Fitness Center.
From there, February might be the shortest month of the year, but it will feature the most matches of the season as UC will face eight opponents, opening with a trip to Dayton February 2. After back-to-back home matches with IUPUI (February 7) and Western Michigan (February 8), the Bearcats return to the road for four in a row, starting February 14 at Middle Tennessee State, the #10 team in the ITA Ohio Valley Region last year. After a neutral site match with East Tennessee State at MTSU February 15, the Bearcats will face two nationally ranked teams, starting at #22 Tennessee (February 21) before closing the road trip at #63 Indiana (February 23). The month closes on February 28 with Wright State coming to town.
"The AAC is always tough and among the best conferences in all of college tennis," Toth said. "Our conference matches will certainly be ones we'll need to be at our best. I'm optimistic the week-in and week-out challenges we'll face along with having the luxury of competing at home heavily at the end of the year will put us in very good position to be playing our very best tennis when you ultimately want to as we head into our conference championships in Tulsa.
The conference season gets underway March 6 with Wichita State coming to town before the Bearcats travel to Florida to face #53 USF (March 17) and #19 UCF (March 18) on their respective home courts. UC returns home to face NKU on March 25 before returning to the road March 28 to take on Memphis in the team's final regular-season road competition of the year.
April will not only see four home matches, but all four will be home. The month opens April 1 with crosstown rival Xavier coming to the Trabert-Talbert Tennis Center on UC's campus before Marshall visits April 3. The final weekend of regular-season play will see the Bearcats welcome a pair of conference foes, including UConn (April 10) and ECU (April 12). The AAC Tournament will be played April 15-18 in Tulsa.
Bearcats Tennis Announces 2020 Schedule
Bearcats Tennis Announces 2020 Schedule
Eric Toth, head coach of the University of Cincinnati tennis team, has announced his team's 2020 schedule, a slate that will include 22 matches including 10 that will be played at home.
