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After a three-year absence, Eastern Kentucky is reinstating the university’s men's and women's tennis programs. The Colonels will resume competing in the fall of 2022.

EKU disbanded the programs in 2018 amid severe budget cuts, including more than $2 million from the athletic department.

Men's and women's tennis will compete in the ASUN Conference, which EKU joined in July. Athletic director Matt Roan said EKU plans to hire a head coach for each program “in the coming weeks to allow that head coach to start getting on the road and recruiting.”

Each program will have an operating budget of $60,000. The women will have nine players on the roster and the men will have eight.

EKU previously sponsored men's tennis from 1951-2018 and women's tennis from the early 1970s until the spring of 2018. The university already has facilities in place on campus with the Greg Adams Indoor Tennis Center and Tom Higgins Outdoor Courts.

"We are excited to have men's and women's tennis back in EKU's athletics portfolio," EKU President David McFaddin said. "The move to the ASUN now allows us to compete with our peer institutions in the tennis space, something not possible in our previous conference. In addition, the fact that EKU already has state of the art indoor and outdoor tennis facilities enables us to seamlessly transition to competition.”

From 2009-15, while competing in the Ohio Valley Conference, the EKU tennis programs combined for nine regular-season championships, eight conference tournament titles and seven NCAA tournament appearances.

The Colonel men claimed four conference tournament titles in a six-year span (2010, 2011, 2012, 2015) and EKU's women won four consecutive regular-season titles from 2012-15. From April 5, 2011 through April 2, 2014, the Eastern Kentucky women's team won 30 straight conference regular season dual matches. The men's team put together a streak of 25 straight regular season conference dual match victories from April 12, 2008 through March 21, 2012.

Throughout its history, the men's program has had 39 all-conference selections, three conference Player of the Year honorees, two Freshman of the Year award winners and five Coach of the Year selections. The women's program has totaled 44 all-conference choices, seven Player of the Year winners, one Freshman of the Year and three Coach of the Year recipients.

Rob Oertel was the head coach when the programs got cut. He was 249-193 with the men’s teams and 243-176 with the women’s teams from 2002-2018.

"The return of Eastern Kentucky University's tennis programs elevates EKU and Colonel Athletics," Roan said. "Reviving these teams will reestablish two prominent programs in EKU's storied athletics history and provide more student-athletes with the opportunity to develop on and off the courts here at EKU.”

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About Rhiannon Potkey

Rhiannon Potkey is a veteran sportswriter with more than two decades of experience in journalism. Potkey has covered many sports at many levels and has a passion for finding great stories. Potkey has covered the U.S. Open, junior sectional and national events, college conference championships and Davis Cup matches. Potkey is currently Content Strategist for Tennis Recruiting. You can reach Rhiannon by email at [email protected].