FORT WORTH, Texas -- As the Arkansas men's tennis team took in the applause of its traveling support, coach Jay Udwadia briefly looked back.
The Razorbacks' coach, who had just seen his team's season end 4-3 in the NCAA Tournament first round against Cornell on Friday, saw Big Red players join in on the praise. It was a brief moment of camaraderie, of bonding, at Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center after the teams spent much of the previous two-plus hours looking to send the other home.
And perhaps it was a scene emblematic of the collegiate tennis landscape as a whole.
Arkansas announced a week earlier that its men's and women's tennis programs would be discontinued at the end of their respective seasons.
The women's team was not selected for the postseason. The men's team lost Friday.
As of now, the Arkansas tennis programs -- 71 years of history on the men's side, 46 for the women's team -- are no longer.
"It's definitely a different situation going on with all of the extra funding that needs to take place," Udwadia said. "Obviously, I'm a big advocate of all Olympic sports, so I hope the cutting stops. I hope institutions can find a way to see the value in everything in...
- Log in to post comments
Link