MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama men's tennis team will compete this weekend at the ITA Weekend Kickoff hosted by Texas A&M at the Mitchell Tennis Center. The Jaguars will face site host and the ninth-rated Aggies on Saturday at 10 a.m., and then take on either Georgia Tech or Oregon on Sunday at 2 p.m.

MATCH INFORMATION
Opponent: at No. 9 Texas A&M
Date: 1/25
Opponent: vs. Georgia Tech or Oregon
Date: 1/26
Place: Mitchell Tennis Center (College Station, Texas)

MEDIA INFORMATION
Live Stats (Sat.): statb.us/b/290349
Live Stats (Sun.): statb.us/b/290351
Video: 12thman.com/livetennis

ON THE COURT FOR THE JAGUARS
- Ezra Blissard (Sr., Van Vleet, Miss., 0-10 Singles, 2-9 Doubles)
- Martin Bugaj (Fr., Hodonín, Czech Republic, 6-8 Singles, 6-8 Doubles)
- Loïc Cloes (Sr., Oreye, Belgium, 9-6 Singles, 7-7 Doubles)
- Sébastien Collard (Fr., Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, 10-7 Singles, 7-11 Doubles)
- Jordan Coutinho (Fr., Johannesburg, South Africa, 0-3 Singles, 0-4 Doubles)
- Louis Delcour (So., Lille, France, 9-8 Singles, 6-10 Doubles)
- Clément Marzol (Sr., Toulouse, France, 8-5 Singles, 9-8 Doubles)
- Leon Pet'ko (Fr., Bratislava, Slovakia, 2-9 Singles, 5-9 Doubles)

NOTES
- South Alabama last competed in the ITA Kickoff Weekend event during the 2018 season when the Jaguars faced Florida and Pepperdine in Gainesville, Fla.
- Texas A&M and South have met four previous times with the Aggies taking three of those meetings, including the last one in College Station, Texas (5-2). USA's lone win in the series came back during the 1996 season, a 4-0 victory in College Station.
- Should South and Georgia Tech meet on day two, it will be just the second and first since the 1994 season where they competed at the O'Charley's/Vol Tennis Classic (L, 4-3). Officially a meeting versus the Ducks would be the first as the only other meeting during the 2001 season was vacated (W, 7-0).
- The Aggies enter the tournament ranked ninth in the most recent Oracle/ITA rankings. Texas A&M opened the spring portion of its schedule last weekend at the Sherwood Collegiate Cup in Sherwood, Calif.
- Second-seeded Georgia Tech and third-seeded Oregon will face each other on day one of the tournament. The Yellow Jackets opened the spring with a pair of wins over Georgia Southern (7-0 and 4-0), and then hosted the MLK Invitational Tournament last weekend, while the Ducks began the spring with three wins before falling 5-2 to No. 17 Michigan in Eugene in their last match.
- The winner of the College Station site will automatically qualify for the 16-team field for the 2020 Indoor Championships hosted by Wisconsin at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison.

UP NEXT
- Following competition at the ITA Kickoff Weekend, South will return home to host both Lamar and Nicholls State on Sat., Feb. 1 at noon and 3 p.m., respectively.

THEY SAID IT
Head coach Nick Brochu
- On participating in the ITA Kickoff Weekend: "We're looking forward to competing this weekend at the ITA Kickoff. Our players know they earned this opportunity as a result of the great season we had last year. Only the top 64 teams from the previous year qualify for this big event."
- On playing at Texas A&M: "College Station is a place that we haven't played at in a long time. It will be fun to go back out there and compete in that environment. We also have a chance this weekend to face some programs we usually don't have a chance to compete against for one reason or another, and that will be very exciting for our players."
- On having already played against a tough opponent in a tough environment: "This weekend they can go into these two matches a little more relaxed having seen and felt the pressure from last weekend. We are excited to play a team in the first match that is ranked top 10 nationally. We have two guaranteed matches against top 50 programs, so it's a great opportunity for us. Last year we went out to California and split our two matches, so this season we are shooting for matching that to help improve our ranking. We also want to see how we've progressed since last week. We played well against Florida State, but made some mistakes, especially in doubles where we weren't as sharp as we need to be. Every day we want to get better and every week we want to play better."
- On what else the team took from last weekend: "Even though the score of the Florida State match last weekend was 5-2, it was really much closer than the score indicated. We had a lot of singles matches that were really close, and at one point in the match, we were winning on four courts. That match could've easily turned out differently. We're a relatively young team and I feel that some of our guys may had been a little nervous playing on a big stage against a big team."

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_JAGS. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

Join the Baseline Club, the tennis-specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund. All donations to the Baseline Club go directly to support the South Alabama men's and women's tennis programs. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/baselineclub

—USA—