University of Massachusets Athletics
Minutemen Look To Build On Success Of 2000-2001 Season
January 16, 2002 | Men's Tennis
Jan. 16, 2002
After a second-place finish in the Atlantic 10 Conference in 2000-01, head coach Judy Dixon and her Minutemen are ready to contend for the A-10 title and with it, an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. UMass was one win away from the championship last year, as it fell in the final match of the league tournament. Dixon says the most remarkable thing about her teams? success is that the Minutemen are the only non-scholarship school expected to make a legitimate run at the A-10 title.
Senior Steve Prisco will play No. 1 singles again this season, a slot from which he recorded 14 wins a year ago. Prisco has played No. 1 before and is comfortable at that position, said Dixon. With the tough schedule that we play, Steve faces some of the region?s best competition. Many of his opponents are either regionally or nationally ranked.
Senior Todd Champeau, who has bounced around the lineup considerably in his first three years, will step into the No. 2 spot. His improvement over the years has been tremendous, and I believe that he is ready to step into the No. 2 position, said Dixon.
Sophomore Rory Theis will play at No. 3 this season, a step up from the No. 5 slot he held last year. His intense play makes him a great player, said Dixon.
Dixon has brought in two new freshmen whom she expects to play in the fourth or fifth singles position. Scott Sans Leeb is a 5-10 player out of Lafayette, Calif., where he was ranked 13th in Northern California, and Reid Stubbs is a 5-9 player from Fort Myers, Fla., who was ranked 53rd in the state of Florida.
Junior Eric Reblin will return to the Maroon and White this season, after playing for the Minutemen as a freshman and then transferring to TCU where he did not see any action as a sophomore. Reblin transferred back to UMass last year and will be ready to compete this season after sitting out the 2000-01 campaign due to NCAA regulations. Since he has not played a match in three seasons, I believe he will be an asset to our team once he gets some actual game experience, said Dixon.
Dixon will round out the team with sophomore Phil Rodrigues and junior Jed Greenberg, a transfer from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, at No. 7 and 8. Rodrigues notched six singles wins in limited action last year, while Greenberg was added to the squad this fall to add some depth. Dixon also added a local product, Mark Porter, out of Amherst Regional H.S., to the No. 9 slot providing extra depth in the singles lineup.
With so many additions to the 2001-02 roster, Dixon has yet to determine UMass? doubles parings. We were very strong last year, but I will try many combinations this fall to see what works and what doesn?t, said Dixon. One possible team would be Prisco and Theis at No. 1.
A combination of Champeau at No. 2 with either Reblin or Sans Leeb is another possibility Dixon is considering. Stubbs would match-up with either Reblin or Sans Leeb at No. 3.
We will be a little inexperienced at the start of the year, but once we get the right combinations, we should be poised to make a run at the conference championship, said Dixon.
With their recent success, the Minutemen have really stepped up the intensity of their fall schedule. They will play dual matches against Binghamton, Williams, Boston University, Hartford, Amherst and UConn. They will also play one A-10 match versus Rhode Island. Our schedule is set up so we get a chance to work our way into the season, said Dixon. This is what we always try to do.
The strength of the UMass schedule begins in February. Some of the non-conference matches include Yale, Dartmouth, Colgate, Villanova, St. John?s, Army and Cornell. UMass will also take its annual spring break trip to Florida in March. They will play Division II power Lynn, as well as Stetson, North Florida and Jacksonville.
If you take a look at our schedule this year, you will see that the teams we beat in the A-10 Tournament are coming to Amherst, said Dixon. That is because schools like Dayton and Xavier want to improve their seedings for the tournament. If you don?t play head-to-head matches, then it is difficult to seed teams in the spring.
Dixon says that this year?s goal is to be in one of the top three schools in the A-10. Now that we have had a taste of success in the A-10?s by finishing second, the team wants to win it all, said Dixon. Richmond, a perennial power, will begin its first season in the A-10 and provides a new challenge for the Minutemen.
Our primary focus is to beat the A-10 opponents and UConn, said Dixon. If we can do this with success, like last season, this should be a great