Men's tennis announces 2018-19 schedule
SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Bryant University men's tennis head coach Ron Gendron is pleased to announce the 2018-19 men's tennis schedule, a slate that includes five fall tournaments and 25 matches in the spring.
"We are continuing our challenging out of conference schedule this year," Gendron said. "This season will be a great opportunity for last years underclassmen to develop into what we hope is the core of the NEC's next group of great players. As usual, the travel will take its toll but the challenge of a being a mobile group is a big part of our toughness development. We can't wait to battle."
The Bulldogs are coming off a 14-16 campaign in 2017-18 that ended with a fifth-consecutive Northeast Conference Championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. Bryant welcomes back six of the eight players that competed against Texas in the NCAAs and 15 players total this fall.
Bryant's fall begins September 19 when two-time reigning NEC Player of the Year Matt Kuhar (Smithfield, R.I.) competes in the ITA Oracle Invitational in Malibu, California. Kuhar competed last fall as well, facing Wake Forest's Petros Chrysochos, the No. 3 player in the country.
The rest of the Bulldogs open the fall the following weekend (Sept. 28-30) at the Brown Invitational. It will be the first of two tournaments the Black and Gold will compete in at Brown (Nov. 8-10). Bryant will also send players to the ITA Regional Championships in New Haven, Connecticut.
Bryant will play at home once in the fall as it hosts the Bryant Invitational on October 27. The Bulldogs will welcome NEC member St. Francis Brooklyn as well as Boston University and Holy Cross.
The Bulldogs will then embark on another grueling spring schedule that will take them to Oklahoma, Ohio, New York and all points in between. Bryant opens the spring on January 11 with a pair of matches at the University of Tulsa. The Black and Gold will face Tulsa and Texas Tech in the same day.
January concludes with a pair of matches against Ivy League opponents. Bryant will travel to Dartmouth on January 20 and make the short trip to Brown on January 22.
The Black and Gold will play their only three home matches of the season in the month of February. They open the month at ForeCourt in Cumberland against Boston University (Feb. 9) and Merrimack (Feb. 13) before hosting East Carolina on February 17 in its last home game of the year.
Bryant will travel to MIT on February 13 before spending a weekend in Ohio. The Bulldogs will face Xavier, Wright State and Dayton over the course of two days. Following their match with East Carolina, the Black and Gold head to West Point to take on Army and NJIT to close the month.
March will take the Bulldogs to New York, New Jersey and Maryland for nine matches. The month opens in upstate New York with matches against Binghamton (March 2) and Colgate (March 3). Bryant will then face Sacred Heart, Princeton and Buffalo in a three-day span (March 7-9) before taking on Navy, George Washington and Mount St. Mary's (March 17-19) the following weekend. The Black and Gold close the month in Queens with a match against St. John's (March 23).
In April, the Bulldogs head to Wagner (April 6) and Fairleigh Dickinson (April 7) for NEC matches before closing the regular season at Quinnipiac on April 13.
The 2019 Northeast Conference Men's Tennis Championships are scheduled for April 18-20 at the Mercer County Tennis Center in West Windsor, N.J.
Dates and times are scheduled to change.
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