Men's Tennis | 1/22/2015 3:11:00 PM
ABILENE - Abilene Christian's men's tennis team will look to duplicate the excellent results turned it by its female counterparts last weekend at Indiana when it travels to Dallas to take on Troy and SMU this Saturday and Sunday at the Brookshire Indoor Pavilion.
The Wildcats open their spring season vs. Troy Saturday at 5 p.m. before battling SMU Sunday at noon.
SMUMustangs.com will offer live stats for its dual vs. ACU.
Guilherme Gesser is the lone senior this year's young, but experienced Wildcats' squad, which will look to replace the combined 25 victories earned last spring by No. 1 Borja Cortés and No. 2
Nicklas Wingord.
A three-year starter, Gesser went 9-10 at No. 3 singles last season for a team that went 17-10 overall and 5-1 during its first year in the Southland Conference, placing second. The Wildcats also won several matches at season's end to win the inaugural National Tennis Invitational Tournament in Omaha, Neb.
Gesser likely will be joined in the lineup by sophomore
Nico Agritelley - a Dallas native who led the team with 19 singles victories from the No. 4-6 positions - and juniors
Jason Proctor and
Marco Bensley. Proctor rebounded from a tough rookie season to win 13 singles matches last spring, while Bensley went 5-1 vs. Southland opponents as part of a 16-9 season.
Rounding out the lineup will be veterans
Brandon McCarty and
Andrew Hutchinson plus a talented trio of freshmen:
Henry Adams,
Paul Domanski and
Brad Gleason.
Domanski's fall was highlighted by winning ACU's Wal Mart Open singles title over Bensley, and then teaming with Bensley to reach the round of 16 at the ITA Texas Regionals.
Gleason, meanwhile, won the Wal Mart Open doubles title alongside Bensley and later took third-place at the New Mexico State Aggie Invitational.
In finishing the fall season at Grand Canyon, Domanski and Bensley both reached the finals of Flight 3 singles but opted to play a different opponent for their final match.
Domanski reached the finals by beating Arjun Bal of Grand Canyon in the round of 16, 6-2, 0-6, 6-3, and Air Force's Dillon Launius and Nicholas Carpenter in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, by scores of 6-3, 6-0 and 6-4, 6-2. Bensley's road included an opening-round win over Northern Arizona's Harun Ajanovic, 7-5, 6-4 and consecutive wins over GCU's Alexander Roggenkamp (6-2, 6-0) and Meidy Chazeau (7-6, 7-5).
Unfortunately, Domanski would go on to lose to Chazeau in his bonus match, 6-4, 6-1, while Bensley fell in three sets to Carpenter, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
The Mustangs, which blanked ACU 7-0 last winter, already are off to a 1-0 start after silencing the Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara Monday, 6-1. SMU swept doubles before taking five of six singles contests with its lone defeat coming in three sets at the No. 2 position, where Morgan Mays held on to beat Markus Kerner, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6.
The Trojans have yet to play a dual this spring semester. They posted an 8-17 overall record last season as members of the Sun Belt Conference.
SMU is a member of the American Athletic Conference and went 11-13 a year ago with its lone win over a nationally ranked opponent coming against No. 62 Central Florida, 4-1.
