Liberty to Compete at ITA Kickoff Weekend for First Time in Program History
1/21/2021 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Live Video: Liberty at No. 6 Texas
Live Scoring: Liberty at No. 6 Texas
Live Video: Liberty vs. No. 9 Florida/Arizona
Live Scoring: Liberty vs. No. 9 Florida/Arizona (link TBD based on Friday result)
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The Liberty men's tennis program will make history with its first-ever appearance at ITA Kickoff Weekend, Friday and Saturday.
The Flames (1-1) qualified for the prestigious event, which is in now in its 13th year, for the first time in school history. The tournament features some of the top teams in the country. Liberty will face No. 6 Texas (2-0), Friday at 3 p.m. at the Texas Tennis Center. The Longhorns are the defending national champions, having won the last contested title in 2019 over Wake Forest.
"It's an awesome opportunity for our team to represent Liberty at ITA National Indoor Kickoff Weekend," stated fourth-year Flames head coach Derek Schwandt. "We're very appreciative of our opportunity to play and all that Liberty administration is doing to support our team. We look forward to the competition."
In the other semifinal on Friday (11 a.m.), the No. 9 Florida Gators (2-0) will square off with the Arizona Wildcats (2-0). The winners of the two matches will meet in the championship match on Saturday, while the other two teams will battle in a consolation match.
There are seven host sites on the men's side, with four teams competing at each site. The winner at each site will advance to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, where they will be joined by the respective host site school (Illinois) to fill out the eight-team field. Below is the schedule for the weekend.
Friday
No. 9 Florida vs. Arizona – 11 a.m. | North Courts
No. 6 Texas vs. Liberty – 3 p.m. | North Courts
Saturday
If outdoors
Championship match 3 p.m. | North Courts
Consolation match 3 p.m. | South Courts
If indoors
Consolation match 10 a.m.
Championship match 1 p.m.
Attendance/Live Video/Live Scoring
The event will be closed to the public. Texas Athletics will have a live video stream of each Liberty match, provided that the match is held outdoors. Live scoring will be available for both Flames matches. Visit the schedule page of LibertyFlames.com/menstennis for the links to live video and live scoring.
Also, be sure to follow Liberty Men's Tennis social media channels for updates during the matches.
Flames News and Notes
• Liberty and Texas will be meeting for the first time in a dual match. The Flames competed at Texas' fall Longhorn Invitational, Nov. 9-11, 2018.
• The Flames have never faced Florida during a spring season. Liberty is 0-1 all-time at Arizona. The Wildcats topped the Flames 6-1 on March 14, 2019 in Tucson, Ariz.
• Liberty was voted to finish second in the ASUN Conference behind defending champion FGCU in the preseason poll.
• The Flames' Rafael Marques Da Silva was tabbed the ASUN Player of the Week on Wednesday by the conference office. It is the first player of the week honor of Marques Da Silva's career. The second-year player clinched Liberty's victory over Elon on Monday with a three-set win (6-3, 4-6, 6-4) over Camilo Ponce.
• Liberty posted a 3-5 road record in 2020, but two of those victories came over Power-5 schools. The Flames won 4-3 at Virginia Tech (Feb. 9) and picked up a 5-2 victory at Penn State (Feb. 21) in a span of 13 days.
• Liberty's roster features one junior (Nicaise Muamba), four sophomores (Zion Heaven, Steve Mundt, Josh Wilson and Christiaan Worst) and four freshmen (Goncalo Ferreira, Thando Longwe-Smit, Rafael Marques Da Silva and Deji Thomas-Smith. Please note that Liberty's listed eligibility is based on spring sports student-athletes retaining a year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic halting the 2020 season.
