Southern Intercollegiates next weekend in Athens

[jcgatennismom]

If you are a fan of ACC/SEC tennis, live driving distance from Athens, want to take a first look at ACC/SEC freshmen or even have a son considering playing for an ACC/SEC team, you should come out this weekend and watch some of the Southern Intercollegiate invitational at UGA. Usually there are about 20 teams-mostly ACC/SEC-even some B12 but some talented midmajors like Georgia State and UNC-Wilmington have also played in the past. NAIA champ GGC players have also played some years and beaten some UGA players. Players are split into A-D draws-not sure if assignment is based on UTR, ITA ranking, line position or some combination, but both the A and B draws usually feature some great matches. While coaches can't talk to recruits off campus if they aren't seniors, players can watch how teams interact. If a recruit has been talking to a coach of a team that is attending, the recruit could ask if he could meet part of the team. There is usually some spare time between teammate matches. One coach who recruited my son had his team captain introduce most of the team at the invite one year. While most of the teams are Power teams, there are some unranked midmajors too so recruits who attend may learn about some teams they had not considered before.

The invitational is earlier this year, and the UGA tennis site does not list the teams playing this year-probably will be posted on site in the next couple days. Here are the teams that had players in the A draw last year:
Power: Arkansas, Baylor, Clemson, Florida, Georgia, GA Tech, Kentucky, Louisville, Miami, Miss State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tenn, VA Tech, Vanderbilt
MM: UCF, Old Dominion, GA State, ETSU, Tenn Tech, UNC-Charlotte,Elon, Kennesaw State, Lipscomb, Garner Webb
D2-GA College, Armstrong State (no longer exists)

Quite a variety and that is only the A draw! Most of the MM teams only had 1-2 in the A draw. There were lower lineup player from the power teams in the B draw plus more MM players

2 years ago Chris Eubanks played. Last year Chris didnt play but other Tech players did. I assume Chris will still be in Flushing probably playing American Collegiate Invitational next weekend-not sure which days that is.

 

[optimaltennis]

2 years ago Chris Eubanks played. Last year Chris didnt play but other Tech players did. I assume Chris will still be in Flushing probably playing American Collegiate Invitational next weekend-not sure which days that is.

Chris will not be in any college tournaments this fall.

 

[jcgatennismom]

Unfortunately this tournament is smaller and weaker this year-probably due to it being held so early and also due to uncertainty about the weather for getting home for teams. Last year 15 Power teams played in addition to Georgia. This year only Arkansas, Ole Miss, VA Tech and Louisville are attending. Ole Miss has 5 guys in the MD, while the other 3 teams only have 5 between them in the main draw. Florida Atlantic and Stetson from Florida are sending their teams-guess that is a safe move. The hotels in Atlanta are full with Floridians escaping Irma. Hope the FL teams can make it home OK after the weekend. Florida Atlantic should be a strong MM this year-it had one of the best recruiting classes. GA State, a ranked MM, will played too but only has 2 guys in MD. There are 38 in the MD with another 38 in 2nd draw and 23 in bottom draw which is basically 4 star freshmen. There are some players from power teams in the 2nd draw too

I think I will sit this year out-it's close to 90 min drive for me. However, this is the list of other teams sending anywhere from 2 players to 5+ for the 3 draws: Georgia Gwinnett (NAIA), ETSU, Tenn Tech, Mercer, Lander (D2), UNC Asheville,Kennesaw state, Radford-overall probably half the teams and players as last year. If you are interested in any of these teams, come out and watch. Athens is always a fun place to watch tennis. No GA Tech this year-knew Chris wasn't playing, but I had hoped other team players would come to give the Bulldogs some competition.