MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama men's tennis team will open the spring schedule this weekend when the Jaguars compete at the Alabama Spring Shootout hosted by Alabama at the Alabama Tennis Stadium. Also competing at the event will be players from fourth-ranked North Carolina.

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Tournament Name: Alabama Spring Shootout
Host: Alabama
Dates: 1/10-12
Place: Alabama Tennis Stadium at the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Tennis Facility (Tuscaloosa, Ala.)

FORMAT
- Alabama will play two rounds of doubles matches against South Alabama beginning on Friday at 6 p.m.
- On Saturday, all three teams will play one round of doubles beginning at 1 p.m. Following the doubles matches, there will be two waves of six singles matches played.
- On Sunday, the teams will begin doubles at 10 a.m. and then finish up with another two waves of singles play after doubles competition has concluded.

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

NOTES
- Along with South Alabama and host Alabama, North Carolina will also compete this weekend at the Spring Shootout.
- No team results will be recorded, but the tournament will open up with doubles action on Friday and then play one round of doubles followed by one round/two waves of singles on Saturday and Sunday.
- North Carolina enters the spring ranked fourth in the Oracle/ITA Division I Men's Rankings, while Alabama is receiving votes.
- South Alabama also made a roster addition at the start of the semester as the Jags welcomed freshman Jordan Coutinho from Johannesburg, South Africa.
- All eight players on the roster are scheduled to compete this weekend.

UP NEXT
- Following the Alabama Spring Shootout, South Alabama will begin dual match play next weekend when the Jags travel to Tallahassee, Fla., to take on Florida State at 1 p.m. (CT).

THEY SAID IT
Head coach Nick Brochu
- On how this tournament will help prepare the team for the rest of the spring: "Everyone's excited about this weekend. We aren't using a dual-match format this weekend. The three teams will be using a hidden dual format where the goal is to get a bunch of matches. There won't be a team record since there will be a lot of individual play. We're going to play a lot of doubles and singles matches in order to help prepare us for next weekend when we face Florida State. This weekend provides us an opportunity to get some high-quality competition under our belt. Alabama was a top 30 team last season and North Carolina is among the top 10 coming into the spring. These two opponents will be very challenging and give us an idea of where our young players are. Other than our three seniors five of the eight players on our roster are either freshmen or a sophomore.
"There's no pressure on us so we are going to try some different combinations in doubles and see who works well with each other in order to help us pair our teams for next weekend. This weekend will be challenging, but it will provide us a chance to see exactly what we are going to see next weekend in Tallahassee as well as the following weekend when we go to College Station [Texas] to face Texas A&M and either Georgia Tech or Oregon in the ITA Kickoff Weekend."

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

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