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BLACKSBURG, Va. - Another challenging schedule awaits the Virginia Tech men’s tennis team. The Hokies return 11 players from last year’s 16-8 squad that finished with a No. 24 national ranking and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season.

Tech will have a busy fall season which wIll open Sept. 6-8, with several members of the team playing in the D.C. Invitational in Washington, D.C. The next weekend, Tech will participate in the UVa Fall Classic in Charlottesville, Va., followed by the Nike 4, Sept. 17-19, in Durham, N.C. The Hokies conclude the month Sept. 24-26, with the team splitting to play at the UVa Ranked Plus One event in Charlottesville, Va. and the Southern Intercollegiates in Athens, Ga.

In October, several members of the team will participate in the ITA All-American in Tulsa, Okla., Oct. 2-10, followed by the highlight of the fall schedule, the ITA Atlantic Regional, Oct. 20-24, in Charlottesville, Va. The fall schedule concludes with the Hokies taking part in the ITA National Indoors which is held at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.

Once again, the Hokies will face a very difficult dual-match schedule in the spring, featuring 16 teams ranked in the final Top-75 poll at the end of the 2009-10 season. The Atlantic Coast Conference, featuring ten nationally-ranked teams last year, will prove to be a tremendous challenge for Tech this season. In fact, seven of the 12 ACC schools were selected to compete in the 2010 NCAA Men’s Tennis Team Championship.

The dual-match season opens with the Hokies hosting Eastern Kentucky and Longwood on Jan. 22, before participating in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. The first and second rounds will be held Jan. 28-29, with the Hokies facing Pepperdine in the Durham, N.C. Regional. Duke will host Michigan in the other first round match. The February home slate will include matches against James Madison, St. Bonaventure, Penn State Brown and Boston College. In March, the Hokies will host Louisville in their only home contest of the month and then conclude the home schedule in April with matches versus North Carolina, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Clemson. Tech was 9-3 at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center last year and has a 91-27 (.771) record at home the last decade.

The Hokies will face road matches against Minnesota, Boise State (in Minneapolis, Minn.), Virginia, Maryland, Virginia Commonwealth, Miami, Florida State, NC State and Wake Forest. The ACC Championships will be held April 21-24, in Cary, N.C.

“I am very excited about our schedule this year with the ACC once again loaded with good teams which has us excited about those challenges,” said Virginia Tech men’s tennis coach Jim Thompson. “Our out of conference schedule is also loaded with top teams starting with the Kick Off weekend where we play Pepperdine and we are in the same group with Duke and Michigan. Playing this type of competition every time out makes us better and hopefully will prepare us for a March 4 rematch with top 15 ranked Louisville who we lost to in the NCAA Championships. After that match we have all ranked teams for the rest of the season including the ACC tournament and the NCAA Tournament. What more could you ask for in terms of playing great competition?”

For updates on Virginia Tech men's tennis, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_MTennis).