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Nelson to UTRGV, Camper to Chattanooga, Assistant Hires, Arizona State’s First Signee, Decatur Futures Results

by | Aug 5, 2016 | Blog

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The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) announced the hiring of Dann Nelson as the Vaqueros new men’s tennis coach. Nelson comes to Edinburg after spending the last 11 seasons in Carbondale as head coach of Southern Illinois. Nelson led SIU to a share of the regular season conference championship last season despite the program spending most of the season on the chopping block due to the state of Illinois’s budget woes. SIU got a one-year reprieve and will be back this fall but Nelson probably made a wise decision to secure his future for many years to come.

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Director of Athletics David Blackburn announced the hiring of Chad Camper as the Mocs new women’s tennis coach. Camper had been the women’s head coach at Louisiana Tech for the last three seasons going 36-25 (.590). Camper replaces Jeff Clark who resigned after nine seasons to become the head of the tennis program at Chattanooga’s McCallie School.

Recently hired South Florida men’s head coach Ashley Fisher named Jimmy Arias as the Bulls new assistant coach. Arias played professionally for a number of years achieving a career high ranking of #5 back in 1984 and he has been a television and radio commentator for years.

Minnesota women’s coach Chuck Merzbacher announced the hiring of Nick Kavelaris as the Gophers new assistant coach. Kavalaris spent the last three seasons in the assistant role at Marquette.

2016 Minnesota graduate Julia Courter was named as the new men’s and women’s head coach at D3’s Hamline University (St. Paul, MN). Courter left Minnesota with the tenth most singles wins in school history and will dive into the coaching world with both feet first.

Former South Dakota State head coach Michael Engdahl was announced as the new women’s coach at D3’s College of Saint Benedict (St. Joseph, MN). Engdahl, who is a St. Cloud native, returns home after spending the last five seasons at South Dakota State as the men’s and women’s coach.

Arizona State men’s head coach Matt Hill announced that Benjamin Hannestad will be the program’s first signee for the re-inaugural 2017-18 season. Hannestad will enroll this January and redshirt and then be eligible for ASU’s first action in the fall. Hannestad was a South Florida commit but he elected to follow Hill to Tempe instead of going to Tampa.

Decatur Futures Round of 16 Results:

Jared Hiltzik (Illinois ’16) def. Dominik Koepfer (Tulane ’16) 6-2, 6-0
Marc Polmans def. Rhyne Williams (Tennessee ’11) 6-4, 7-6(3)
Evan King (Michigan ’13) def. Gonzales Austin (Vanderbilt ’15) 6-2, 5-7, 6-4
Gonzalo Escobar (Texas Tech ’12) def. Aleksandar Vukic (Illinois Rising Jr) 6-3, 6-1
Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee ’11) def. George Goldhoff (Texas Rising Sr) 6-3, 6-1
Tom Fawcett (Stanford Rising Jr) def. Alfredo Perez (Florida Rising Soph) 6-4, 6-4
Roberto Quiroz (USC ’15) def. Strong Kirchheimer (Northwestern Rising Sr) 7-5, 6-4

Quarterfinal Matches
#761 Jared Hiltzik (Illinois ’16) vs. #410 Marc Polmans
#371 Evan King (Michigan ’13) vs. #421 Omar Jasika
#289 Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee ’11) vs. #393 Gonzalo Escobar (Texas Tech ’12)
#445 Roberto Quiroz (USC ’15) vs. #1400 Tom Fawcett (Stanford Rising Jr)

Doubles Semifinals
N Pasha (UGA ’15)/D Webb (Okla ’15) def. A Lawson (ND ’16)/D Koepfer 2-6, 7-6(4), 1-0 (2)
Jared Hiltzik/Rhyne Williams vs. [2] Gonzalo Escobar/Alejandro Gomez (‘Kentucky ’14)

Doubles Finals
Nathan Pasha (UGA ’15)/Dane Webb (Okla ’15) vs. TBD