MOBILE, Ala. – As their fall season comes to an end, the University of South Alabama men's tennis team will compete in the USTA Collegiate Clay Court Invitational this weekend in Orlando, Fla.

The event, hosted by Florida State, will take place Oct. 24-27 at the Disney Resort, and includes players from Florida State, USC, Pepperdine, Tennessee, Illinois, Florida, Notre Dame, Tulsa and Georgia Tech.

"This tournament is a great opportunity for the guys but at the same time a reward," said USA head coach Nick Brochu. "It was very interesting to see how competitive the guys were in practice for a spot in this tournament. They made it a very tough decision, especially towards the end, but the four guys going definitely earned their spot. They had good results throughout the fall and they deserve this opportunity."

South Alabama will be sending senior Shayann Vaezzadeh (Bavent, France) juniors Daniel Leitner (Niederfischbach, Germany) and Manuel Belda (Posadas, Misiones, Argentina) and freshman Tuki Jacobs (Windhoek, Namibia).

"The tournament will be played on clay so that is different and our strategies are different," said Brochu. "We have a lot of players that grew up on clay so hopefully that will help them. We've been practicing on clay since we came back from regionals and trying to get used to sliding and new strategies. All four guys are excited about the tournament and the fact that it is at Disney makes it even better."

The Jaguars competed at the USTA/ITA Southern Regional Championships Oct. 10-12 and defeated players from Auburn, Mississippi State, LSU and Alabama. Leitner posted a 2-1 record, while Vaezzadeh and Belda each went 2-2 and Jacobs had a 1-1 mark.

"We had mixed results at regionals," said Brochu. "We only had a few players advance on the first day and we had about half of the team go into the consolation bracket, which was definitely disappointing. We bounced back on the second day and got a lot of good wins. Overall, we did OK at regionals, but I told the guys we need to do better in the tournament coming up."

Leitner, ranked No. 50, is the fifth-highest ranked player in the tournament and the No. 3 seed. He will face Jesse Flores of Central Florida Thursday. Vaezzadeh will open tournament play against Matthew Gladstone of UCF, while Belda is slated to play Carlos Benito of Georgia Tech. Jacobs will take on Brian Page of Illinois in his first match of the tournament.

"There are going to be so many ranked players at the tournament so this will be a good opportunity for the guys," said Brochu. "They can't be fixated on the rankings because they will come. They just need to be relaxed and play to the best of their capabilities because they deserve to be there."

Tournament play begins Thursday at 8 a.m. and Sunday's matches will be aired on ESPN3.

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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