ABILENE – Abilene Christian's men's and women's teams will be home together for the first time this season when they play host to local and regional rivals Hardin-Simmons and Western New Mexico Saturday at the Eager Tennis Pavilion.
The dual between HSU and ACU is slated to start at 10 a.m. WNM and ACU will follow at 2 p.m. The Abilene/Hardin-Simmons start time was pushed back an hour because of cool temperatures, however, skies are expected to be clear. The afternoon high is projected to reach 61 degrees.
ACU's third-ranked women's team is off to a fine start at 4-1 following last week's doubleheader sweep of Trinity (9-0) and Oklahoma Christian (8-1). The OC Eagles were one of the South Central Region's best teams at last fall's USTA/ITA Championship, but were swept last Saturday by the Wildcats in doubles and lost five of six singles matches in straight sets.
OC's lone win was courtesy of No. 20 Barbora Bozkova, who held on until the very end to beat No. 5
Julia Mongin, 6-1, 7-6 (4) and 10-5. Mongin came all the way back from a 5-1 deficit in the second set to send their match to the third-set super tiebreak.
The Wildcats' 11th-ranked men's team (3-4) got off to a good start last weekend behind wins over Southern Indiana and Murray State, but then a sudden rash of injuries became too much for the Wildcats to overcome, resulting in three-straight defeats to Belmont (4-3), Lipscomb (4-3) and Austin Peay (6-1).
Senior
Hans Hach – the nation's No. 2 singles player – had a perfect weekend out east, going 5-0 from No. 1 singles and 5-0 in doubles with partners Borja Cortes,
Nicklas Wingord and
Jason Proctor.
Hardin-Simmons – ACU's neighbors to the west down Ambler Avenue – are a NCAA D-III school based in the American Southwest Conference. The Cowgirls reached the semifinals of last spring's conference tournament and are off to a 1-2 start this season with losses coming against Dallas Baptist, 8-1, and Trinity, 9-0.
The HSU Cowboys are also off to a 1-2 start with their lone win being a 6-3 decision over the Patriots. Their losses were to LeTourneau, 8-1, and Trinity, 9-0.
The Mustangs of Western New Mexico are part of the NCAA D-II Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and have a men's team (3-5) that's ranked 30th in the nation and led by 43rd-ranked singles player Rodrigo Almeida. Within the south central region, Almeida ranks seventh in singles and 10th in doubles with partner Juan Pablo Fuentes.
Almeida enjoyed a stellar 2012 campaign, in which he went 19-3 overall in singles and 9-1 from the No. 1 position. The Mustang junior also played well at regionals as its No. 3 seed, making it as far as the quarterfinals where he fell to Cameron's Nicolai Ferrigno, 6-2, 6-3.
No. 1 singles player Ganna Turner (4-2) leads the Mustangs' women's team (3-3). Last year's squad went 10-13 overall and 4-2 vs. the RMAC.
