MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama men’s tennis team will travel to Gainesville, Fla. Saturday for the fifth annual ITA Kick-Off Weekend.
The University of Florida will host the event at Linder Stadium at the Ring Tennis Complex. USA will face No. 42 UNC Wilmington on Saturday at noon CST and either No. 12 Florida or No. 56 St. Johns on Sunday.
The Jaguars enter the weekend with a 1-1 record after defeating Florida A&M, but falling to No. 32 Florida State. Senior Alex Bernard and sophomore Daniel Leitner combined for a 3-1 record in singles for the weekend. Bernard defeated his first ranked opponent with a win over No. 99 Benjamin Lock of No. 32 Florida State.
“I think this past weekend some guys had a real wake-up call,” said USA head coach Nick Brochu. “They played well, but they need to be a little tougher. We also had some guys that performed extremely well. We had two major wins against Florida State with Daniel at No. 1 and Alex at No. 3. I think those guys got a good confidence boost. This past weekend was definitely good preparation for this coming weekend.”
Saturday will mark the first ever meeting between South Alabama and UNC Wilmington. The Seahawks currently hold a 2-0 record after blanking both Troy and Appalachian State. The Seahawks have four individuals and doubles teams in the ITA rankings. In doubles, UNCW has a 10th-ranked pair of Chris Cooprider and Kosta Blank, and No. 37 Rafael Aita and No. 121 Sam Williams are a 53rd-ranked duo.
“UNC Wilmington is known to be a very good doubles team,” said Brochu. “So the doubles point is going to be very hard to win. They have a lot of big guys and big serves. With singles I think we are going to have to really establish our game. We need to slow things down a little bit and make them move and run. That’s going to be our game plan for Saturday.”
Sunday could potentially mark the second meeting with the Gators, who hold a 1-0 advantage in the series, but the two teams have not met since 1989. Florida’s Florent Diep is the highest ranked player at the event at No. 26. Diep also pairs with Mike Alford as the 46th-ranked doubles tandem.
St. John’s is currently 0-2 on the season, after falling to South Florida (7-0) and Stetson (5-2). If the Jaguars face the Red Storm Sunday it will be the first meeting between the two teams. St. John’s doubles pair of Vasko Mladenov and Hugo Morth are ranked No. 52 heading into the weekend.
“We don’t know who we are going to play in the second round, either St. John’s or Florida,” said Brochu. “I told the guys, don’t look past the first round because we don’t know who we will be playing and we need to focus on UNC Wilmington because we will have our hands full.”
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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