texascollegetennis blog

Kyle Spencer, Baylor’s assistant director of tennis and the reigning national assistant coach of the year, has been hired to lead the University of Maryland men’s tennis program the school announced today.

Spencer, who has also coached at the professional level and played in the Olympics, spent the last three seasons at Baylor and during that time the Bears finished among the top 10 nationally each year. Baylor also captured both the Big 12 Conference regular season and tournament titles each of those seasons.

Spencer, who coached under three-time National Coach of the Year Matt Knoll, had a hand in grooming Baylor All-Americans Lars Poerschke and Denes Lukacs over the last three years.

“From the first time I spoke with the people at Maryland I knew Kyle was a perfect match for their program. They were seeking someone with unquestioned integrity, phenomenal work ethic and enormous passion for college tennis. He exhibited those qualities every single day at Baylor. I couldn’t be happier for him and his wife Kacie as they begin this new chapter in their lives. We wish them every possible success,” said Knoll.

Spencer joins a long line of assistants under Knoll who have gone on to become head coaches at the NCAA Division I level:

ACC – Kyle Spencer, head coach at Maryland
Big 12 – Sam Winterbotham, former head coach at Colorado
Big East – Ryan Sachire, associate head coach at Notre Dame
MAC – Pawel Gajdzik, head coach at Northern Illinois
Pac 10 – Kevin Kowalik, former head coach at Oregon
SEC – Sam Winterbotham, head coach at Tennessee

Former TCU women’s tennis standout Macall Harkins garnered her first postgraduate win Sunday, claiming the doubles title at the Via Christi Women’s 10K. Alongside partner Ester Goldfeld, the duo marched through four tandems to earn the crown.

“It was great to win,” Harkins said. “Ester and I played together last week in Brownsville and we really clicked. We reached the finals there and so we were pretty pumped to not only return to the finals in Wichita, but it motivated us to win it all.”

The win marks the first professional victory in Harkins’ career, coming just over a month after wrapping up her Horned Frog career at the NCAA Doubles Championships in College Station, Texas, on May 22.

The duo had a tough task in the semifinals, battling a pair of 2008 doubles All-Americans in Brook (Buck) Connelly and Kelcy Tefft, formerly of Notre Dame. While at TCU, Harkins was 0-2 against the Fighting Irish tandem, including a loss to eliminate her and partner Anna Sydorska from the 2008 NCAA Doubles Championships. Harkins and Godfeld slid the pairing to advance to the finals, 3-6, 6-2 (10-6).

“Anna and I played them twice in the last two years, definitely college rivals,” Harkins said. “I was able to tell Esther about their style and go into the match with a some sort of scouting report.”

Via Christi Women’s 10K
Doubles Main Draw – Wichita, Kansas
R1. Harkins/Godfeld def. Gabueva/Isaeva, 6-3, 6-4
QF. Harkins/Godfeld def. Hitt/Petero, 6-3, 6-3
SF. Harkins/Godfeld def. Connelly/Tefft, 3-6, 6-2 (10-6)
F. Harkins/Godfeld def. Capannolo/Lumpkin, 7-6 (5), 6-4

SKILLMAN, N.J. – The ITA announced that effective in August 2009, the ITA membership will be aligned into 12 new Regions for all NCAA Division I men’s and women’s tennis programs.
For almost 40 years, the Division I membership of the ITA has been divided into eight regions, based previously upon regional alignments created by the [...]

El Paso – On the heels of a record-setting 2009 dual-match season, UTEP head tennis coach Jamie Campbell showed she is not resting on her laurels by announcing that three quality players have signed national letters of intent to play for the Miners starting this fall. Alexandra Glebova, Austin Lavallii and Veronika Makashov will join [...]

Disclaimer: If I do not make any sense, please ignore what I say. I have been away from my computer for a few days. I am completely exhausted from a weekend of working on the house non-stop in the 100 degree heat.
SUMMER GRAND SLAM
I was unable to head back to College Station Thursday or Friday [...]

The USTA Texas Summer Grand Slam always has some great tennis, but today there were also some great rumors.
COACHING RUMORS
The biggest has to be that both Rodney Harmon and John Roddick are interested in the Oklahoma coaching job. The AD at Oklahoma, Joe Castiglione, is regarded as one of the best in the country and [...]

PRO CIRCUITS
There just isn’t much to talk about. I have updated the pdfs for both Brownsville and Sacramento. None of the current players played, but Lester Cook did get into the second round with a three-set win. Ryan Harrison also won both his singles (in 3 sets) and doubles (in three sets with Venus). Cook [...]

Not a whole lot to report for the most except for the Pro Circuit news across the country. I hope I can keep up daily updates on this through the summer. I am working on a series of articles related to college tennis and some theories I have on how to fix the game or [...]

Aggies Conor Pollock (www.conorpollock.net) and Austin Krajicek captured the doubles title at the Loomis $15k today in California. The pair defeated Alejandro Gonzalez and Eduardo Struvay of Columbia (the country, not the university), 6-2 7-6 (1).
“We played well”, was about all I got out of Conor in a text exchange after the match. I am [...]

Just a quick note that I have started handling a new site, ConorPollock.net. It is a blog where Conor will be updating us on his progress as he attempts to make it on the professional tour. It is a work in progress and I look forward to working with Conor on this endevour.
He and TAMU [...]