Huskers Set To Kickoff Weekend Full of Tennis

LINCOLN, Neb. - The Nebraska men's tennis team will have a busy weekend of action as players will be participating in tournaments in both New York and Minnesota.

Nebraska's doubles team of Christopher Aumueller and Benedikt Lindheim received an at-large bid and will compete in the 2011 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. The duo received a first round bye in the doubles main draw. Aumueller and Lindheim will play their first match of the tournament on Thursday, Nov. 3, at 10 a.m. in the second round. The team will play the winner of New Mexico's Phil Anderson and Jadon Phillips or Flordia's Billy Federhofer and Nassim Slilam, who play earlier on Thursday at 8 a.m.

The Huskers doubles team of Aumueller and Lindehim are 8-2 this fall and are ranked No. 13 in the country by the ITA.

On Tuesday, Aumueller qualified as an at-large singles entrant into the main draw. Aumueller will begin his singles play Thursday as he squares off against Duke's Chris Mengel. Aumueller's match is set to begin at 3:30 p.m.

Aumueller is ranked No. 31 in the country and has a 5-3 record this fall. Mengel is ranked No. 49 in the country.

"We are excited for Benedikt [Lindheim] and Christopher [Aumueller] to represent the University of Nebraska at the National Indoors this week in New York. We feel they have a very good chance to do well at this tournament," Nebraska head coach Kerry McDermott said. "We as coaches feel that Bene and Christopher seem to take advantage of opportunities when they arise. In this case, the sky is the limit for these two guys. We look forward to the great competition that these two guys will encounter and hope they rise to the occasion."

The second tournament of the weekend that the Huskers will be participating in will be the Gopher Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn., at the Baseline Tennis Center. The tournament will kickoff on Thursday, Nov. 3 and will run until Sunday, Nov. 6. Participants from Minnesota, Denver, Nebraska and Notre Dame will be competing in the four-day tournament. Nebraska will begin the tournament on Friday at 9 a.m. with singles play against Denver.

For the singles competition, there will be four groups (A, B, C, & D).  Each group will have two players from each team, totaling eight players for each group.  Each player will play four other players within their group.  No one will play someone on their own team, and there will be no repeat matches vs. the same player.  Group D will have more players to accommodate teams bringing more than eight. 

For doubles competition, there will be four groups (A, B, C, & D).  Each group will have one doubles team from each team, totaling four teams for each group.  Each doubles team will play each of the three other teams within their group (one from each school).  Again, Group D will have more teams to accommodate the extra players. 

Coaches will be asked to assign their players to a group, with the stronger players being in group A, keeping the appropriate progression down through the lettered groups.  There will be one winner for singles and one for doubles in each group.  The players will accumulate points based on their records within each group. 

The National Indoor Championships will have live stats and a live blog. The Gopher Invitational will have live stats and live video for six courts. Links can be found at the top of the page. Continue to check back to Huskers.com for updates throughout the weekend.