Nov. 4, 2010
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
WACO, Texas - A trio of Baylor men's tennis players will finish out the fall season for the Bears by traveling to play in the Texas Invitational at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center in Austin, Texas, Friday through Sunday.
Junior Julian Bley, sophomore Roberto Maytin and freshman Robert Verzaal will all participate in the 32-man singles "A" draw, while Maytin and Verzaal will also partner together to compete in the 32-man doubles draw.
"It is another opportunity for our guys to get a bunch of matches in," head coach Matt Knoll said. "Some of those guys haven't played this fall as much as we would have liked and so we are going to give them a chance to go down and get some good tennis in."
The singles draw contains players from Florida, Marquette, Miami, Oklahoma, Rice, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, UT-Pan American and UT-Arlington.
"There will be plenty of opportunity for those guys to be pushed and hopefully someone can get hot and make a good run," Knoll said.
In first round action on Friday, Bley will face Yauheni Yakauleu of UTA at 10:15 a.m. On the season, Bley is 4-3 in three college tournaments.
"Julian hasn't been himself for a few weeks, but I know he is excited to get down there and get going," Knoll said. "He had a great start to the fall, but then got a little sick and a little beat up and didn't play as well as he would have liked, so hopefully he can kind of right the ship down there."
Maytin earned the tournament's No. 6 seed and will square off against Colin Hoover of Texas A&M at 10:15 a.m. on Friday in his first match. Maytin has posted a 6-4 mark in three tournaments played.
"With Roberto we are continuing to try to improve some things, but he has been great," Knoll said. "He just needs to keep working hard and stay focused."
The final member of the Baylor contingent, Verzaal, will take on Niall Angus of Texas A&M at 11:45 a.m. on Friday. The freshman Bear is 3-5 in three fall tournaments.
For the first time, Verzall will partner with Maytin to play in the doubles draw. The fourth-seeded pair will face Michael Alford and Andrew Butz of Florida at 9 a.m. on Friday.
"We think Woody (Verzaal) can be a good doubles player for us," Knoll said. "So we are basically giving him an opportunity to play with a strong partner to just see how he does."
If any of the Bears win their opening singles match they will turn around and play in second round action later on Friday afternoon, while if the doubles tandem wins the next match will be on Saturday morning.
