Army Readies for Universal Tennis Championship

WEST POINT – Army West Point men’s tennis is set to compete in the Universal Tennis NIT Championship from May 18-20 in Atlanta, Georiga. It marks the inaugural National Invitational Tennis Championship held by Universal Tennis. All matches will be streamed live on Amazon Prime Video, with quarterfinal matchups beginning on Thursday, May 18.

Eight men’s and eight women’s teams were selected to participate in this inaugural event, with the team’s UTR Power 6 ranking among the top criteria for consideration. The tournament format will be playoff knockout rounds with two matches guaranteed for all as first-round (quarterfinal) losers will get one extra match. All matches count towards verified UTR Ratings.

The field of participants on the men’s side include Army, Citadel, Denver, Liberty, Vanderbilt, Reinhardt, UC Davis and UC San Diego. Army will take on UC Davis in its quarterfinal matchup on Thursday morning, slated for a 10:00 a.m. start pending the conclusion of the earlier match.

Army earns the invite following a strong campaign in the Patriot League, posting a 19-12 overall record this season with a 6-1 mark in the conference. UC Davis also had a successful campaign, achieving a 14-7 overall record and 5-1 mark in the Big West before falling to UC Irvine in the Big West semifinals.

Army enters the tournament boasting one of the top doubles pairings in A.J. Woodman and Thomas Lake. They logged a 14-6 overall record in doubles, including a 6-1 mark in Patriot League play, in flight one. They secured victories in both playoff matchups versus Lafayette and Boston for the Black Knights while collecting non-conference victories against. St. John’s, DePaul, Drexel, Hofstra, Richmond and more down the stretch to lead the Black Knights.

Woodman also posted a 12-9 singles record this season as Army’s number one, earning a 4-1 record in conference play. Woodman earned All-Patriot League first team honors for the second consecutive season, while also landing on the PL Academic All-League squad. He was joined on the all-league first time by Lake, who played his singles at the No. 2 for Army and posted a 10-8 overall singles record with a 4-2 mark in the Patriot League.

Samuel Haikal came on strong as the season progressed for Army, eventually logging an 11-3 overall record in singles while dominating the Patriot League with a 6-1 record in the conference. Samuel Eden and Vishnu Bodavula were strong at the No. 3 and No. 4 position for Army, and recorded a 6-4 record together in doubles. Jake Huarte and Marcus Sebastian also put up good results for Army, with Huarte registering a 5-2 singles record in the Patriot League while Sebastian had an 8-3 overall singles record in his rookie campaign.