Tennessee Volunteers Tennis

The Tennessee Volunteer tennis teams represent the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville, TN. The men's tennis team has appeared in 27 NCAA Tournaments. The Tennessee women's team has qualified for 26 NCAA Tournaments, including 20 straight from 1995 to 2014. Tennys Sandgren, a breakout player on the ATP World Tour, helped lead Tennessee to the NCAA finals in 2010.

Tennessee Volunteers tennis
UniversityUniversity of Tennessee
Head coachMen: Chris Woodruff
(2nd season)
Women: Alison Ojeda
(3rd season)
ConferenceSEC
LocationKnoxville, TN
Home CourtBarksdale Stadium
(Capacity: 2,000)
NicknameVolunteers
ColorsOrange and White[1]
         
NCAA Tournament runner-up
Men: 1990, 2001, 2010
NCAA Tournament Semifinals
Men: 1987, 1990, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2010
Women: 2002
NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals
Men: 1987, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2010, 2011, 2013
Women: 2002, 2010
NCAA Tournament Round of 16
Men: 1979, 1980, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2019

Women: 1990, 1992, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2010
NCAA Tournament Round of 32
Men: 1989, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019

Women: 1989, 1991, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019
NCAA Tournament appearances
Men: 1979, 1980, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019

Women: 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019
Conference Tournament championships
Men: 1990, 2002, 2010
Conference regular season champions
Men: 1951, 1966, 1970, 1980, 1986, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2011

Men’s Program

Sam Winterbotham Era

Sam Winterbotham was formerly the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes men's tennis team from 2002–2006. After the 2006 season Colorado cut the men's tennis team due to budget constrains. Winterbotham was then hired by UT in the summer of 2006. From 2007-2015 Winterbotham led Tennessee to nine consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, including six appearances in the NCAA round of 16, three appearances in the NCAA Quarterfinals, and one national championship appearance where they lost in a close match to USC 4-2.[2] Winterbotham became the first head coach at Tennessee to win consecutive SEC regular season championships in 2010 and 2011. Winterbotham also led UT to a SEC tournament title in 2010. In 2014 Winterbotham coached doubles pair Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese all the way to the 2014 NCAA doubles title. After 11 years of coaching UT, as well as a 217-104 match record, Sam Winterbotham was fired on May 4, 2017 at the conclusion of the 2017 season. The Vols had struggled and missed the NCAA Tournament for two consecutive years in 2016 and 2017. In Winterbothams last two years at Tennessee he had a combined 25-31 record and the Vols were 3-21 in SEC play.[3]

Chris Woodruff Era

Winterbotham was replaced by long term assistant and former NCAA Singles Champion at Tennessee Chris Woodruff. In Woodruff's first season as head coach he led the Vols to a 21-9 record and 4th place in the SEC regular season standings with an 8-4 conference record. Tennessee made the semifinals of the SEC tournament losing to Texas A&M 4-0. The Vols returned to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2015 beating UNC Wilmington 4-0 in the first round before losing to North Carolina 4-0 in the NCAA round of 32.[4]

Women’s Program

Mike Patrick led the Lady Volunteer Tennis program for 30 years before he resigned on November 16, 2016. Patrick was the winningest coach in Lady Vol program history compiling a 473-310 all-time record. Of Patrick's 30 seasons, 23 teams finished the year ranked in the top 25. Patrick's assistant coach Alison Ojeda, a former All-American at Tennessee, took over the program in 2017.[5] In each of Ojeda's first two seasons as head coach she has guided the Lady Vols to the NCAA Tournament.

NCAA Tournament Notes

Until 1988 the Men's NCAA Tournament only included 16 teams. From 1988 to 1994 the NCAA men's and women's tournament was a 20 team field with 12 teams receiving byes to the round of 16. For the 1994 and 1995 NCAA tournaments the field again consisted of just 16 teams. In 1996 the field for both genders was expanded to 48 teams. In 1999 the field expanded to the current format of 64 teams for both genders. For example, when the Lady Vols reached the NCAA tournament in 1990 they competed in the round of 16 without competing in the round of 32.

References

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