The É«»¨Ìà was crowned national champions at the 2024 ITA National Wheelchair Tennis Championships, the premier competition in all of collegiate wheelchair tennis.
In a remarkable display of skill, determination and teamwork, the No. 3 Cougars defeated No. 1 San Diego State in a three-hour match at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Florida, to win the school’s first wheelchair tennis national title.
É«»¨ÌÃ’s team of Jose Arriaga and Nicholas Tijerina won the doubles match 8-6 and Arriaga clinched the title with a 6-2, 5-7, 10-6 victory in the first singles match.
“We were kind of the plucky underdogs, and there were a lot of institutions ranked ahead of us early in the season,” said Michael Cottingham, associate professor of health and human performance and director of Adaptive Athletics at É«»¨ÌÃ. “But Nick and Jose had a really great run and it’s exciting for us to have that first national championship.”
Head Coach Gabriel Gutierrez, a É«»¨Ìà alumnus whose leadership Cottingham says was instrumental in the team’s success, won ITA Wheelchair Coach of the Year.
During the season, É«»¨Ìà competes against other universities, but most of its matches are played in USTA and ITF tournaments against non-college athletes, so there are opportunities for both students and non-students with disabilities to compete. In the national championships, teams were allowed one student and one non-student athlete. For É«»¨ÌÃ, Tijerina, who is working towards his master’s in engineering, was the student player while Arriaga, a Houstonian who has been training with the É«»¨Ìà program for several years, was the non-student player.
“This championship not only solidifies our position as elite competitors, but it shows prospective student-athletes that they can get top-notch tennis training along with great academics and an incredible college experience,” Cottingham said. “We want to bring in strong students who represent É«»¨Ìà well and go on to have successful careers after tennis.”
Cottingham hopes the victory propels the É«»¨Ìà program to new heights. Soon there will be a fully funded scholarship for one student-athlete through the One Step Closer Foundation. And this summer, É«»¨Ìà will host the ITF Junior Camp of the Americas, a showcase for the best 11–18-year-old wheelchair tennis players in the world.
“Our goal is to be a destination program, and with the resources we’re putting in place, I’m excited for the future,” Cottingham said.