KNOXVILLE – Several weeks after her promotion from assistant to head coach of the Tennessee women’s tennis program last fall, Alison Ojeda sat down with players to set goals for the 2017 team season.
“To be honest, we nailed them,” Ojeda said Monday. “The girls have been fantastic.”
Led by Ojeda, who played at Tennessee from 1998 to 2002, the Volunteers are back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2014. Their first-round match is against Winthrop at 1 p.m. Friday at Duke University.
“It’s a great feeling,” the Vols’ Eve Repic said. “Playing in the tournament as a freshman was a really cool experience. You play against the best teams and individuals in the country, and I’m really looking forward to doing it again as a senior.”
Repic credited Ojeda with quickly changing the culture of the program. Ojeda came to Tennessee as an assistant in June 2016 from Baylor, where she was an assistant from 2010 to ’16. Ojeda was named the Vols’ head coach on Nov. 21.
“She played tennis here and was an All-American,” Repic said. “She just exudes passion for Tennessee and loves Knoxville. She loves the university, and being able to be a player under her is incredible, because she has so much passion. With our results, you can see it. Every day she pushes us, and it’s great.”
The winner of Friday’s match faces Duke or Winthrop the same day.
“Going into the NCAA tournament, everyone is starting off fresh,” Ojeda said. “Sixty-four teams have a chance to win it right now, and that’s really what we want to focus on moving forward.”
Good APR scores
The NCAA released Academic Progress Rate scores from the 2015-16 academic year Wednesday, and most Tennessee programs improved or held steady.
Men’s basketball suffered the most noteworthy decline, with a 2015-16 score of 938 bringing the team’s four-year total to 965, down from 970 the year before.
Teams are required to maintain four-year APR scores of 930 or higher to remain eligible for the postseason. Other penalties for scores below 930 can include reduced practice time. The score is essentially a calculation of whether schools are keeping their scholarship athletes enrolled in school and academically eligible to compete.
Tennessee football’s APR continued its rapid ascension under coach Butch Jones. Jones arrived at Tennessee in December 2012 after the team posted a 909 score for 2011-12. The program’s multi-year APR was 924 and among the worst in the nation, placing the Vols at risk of postseason ineligibility if they did not cross the 930 threshold by the end of 2014-15.
The team’s multi-year score is now 972, factoring in a 978 posted for 2015-16.
Men’s cross country, men’s tennis, women’s golf, women’s tennis and women’s track and field each has a multi-year score of 1,000, the highest possible. Eleven of Tennessee’s 18 programs posted a 1,000 in 2015-16.
Women’s golfers eighth in regional
The women’s golf team came within four strokes of qualifying for the NCAA championships. Chattanooga native and Baylor School graduate Blakesly Warren led the Vols with a 3-over-par 219 at the three-day regional that finished Wednesday in Athens, Ga.
Coleman favored
Sprinter Christian Coleman will lead Tennessee into this weekend’s SEC outdoor track and field championships at the University of South Carolina. Coleman, a junior from Atlanta, runs the 100- and 200-meter sprints and is considered a favorite to win those events at next month’s NCAA championships in Oregon.
Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com.