No. 73 Men?s Tennis Prepares for Season Opener in Jacksonville
1/24/2015 2:04:00 AM | Men's Tennis
CHARLESTON, S.C. – College of Charleston men's tennis begins its 2015 campaign on Sunday afternoon with a 1 p.m. match in Jacksonville, against the Ospreys of North Florida.
The Cougars are tied for 73rd place on the International Tennis Association's Division I rankings, moving up one spot from the Jan. 6th poll, before even stepping foot on the court. The team is riding high after advancing to the championship match of the Colonial Athletic Association conference tournament, in just Charleston's second year in the league.
“The team has been working hard on the right things this fall and over break,” head coach Jay Bruner said. “Our focus is clear for the spring.”
CofC returns nine players from its 2014 nationally ranked team, including three seniors and four juniors. Top returners for the Cougars include sophomore Rodrigo Encinas who went a perfect 11-0 in doubles with his partner and countryman, Crescente Lesser, who has since graduated. Encinas also posted a 10-6 mark in singles, including a 10-4 record at the No. 2 spot.
The team's top singles player, Brice Allanic, returns for his senior year with Charleston. Allanic recorded a 10-8 mark as the top seed for the Cougars. Also returning are senior Alon Faiman and junior Zack Lewis who recorded a 6-2 record as doubles partners, primarily playing at the No. 2 spot. Lewis notched a 17-4 mark in singles, seeing the majority of his playing time at the fourth and fifth seeds. Faiman, who spent the majority of his season on a 13-match win streak, finished his 2014 season with a record of 15-2, with 12 of those matches being played at the No. 6 spot.
Additionally, Bruner has brought in two new players who will look to make contributions to the program right away. Sophomore Vasily Kichigin comes to Charleston from St. Petersburg, Russia, where he was a finalist in the ITF G4 singles and doubles competition. Franz Sydow is a sophomore transfer from Minnesota who already has one year of college competition under his belt.
No. 69 North Florida will be a tough test for the Cougars first match. The 4-2 Ospreys have already jumped three spots in the rankings since the first ITA poll on Jan. 6 after picking up two wins over No. 67 ETSU and Southern Illinois at the Tennessee Spring Invitational.
“Starting the season by playing such a strong team will let us begin to sharpen our toughness in match play right off the block,” Bruner said. “North Florida is strong and has played half a dozen matches so far so they will be ready for us.”
Fans can follow the action live from Jacksonville by clicking on the Live Stats link on North Florida's schedule page: http://www.unfospreys.com/schedule.aspx?path=mten&
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