Men’s Tennis Opens SLC Play at Affiliate Member Illinois-Chicago

CHICAGO – Making the long trip north, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's tennis program kicks off Southland Conference action against Illinois-Chicago at 11 a.m. Friday at the XS Tennis Village.
 
The Islanders are looking to defend their back-to-back SLC regular season championships. They enter play with a 9-4 record and are coming off back-to-back wins over BYU 4-0 and UTRGV 4-2.
 
Senior Nathan Schwartz is the reigning SLC Player of the Week winner, his second of the season. The L'isle sur Sorgue, France native went unbeaten in singles against UT Arlington, BYU and UTRGV. His victories over BYU and UTRGV both clinched the wins for A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
Senior Matthieu Peres leads the team in singles wins with eight. The experienced Islanders are expected to field a lineup of four seniors and a junior.
 
"This is an incredibly special group, with incredible team unity and heart. They work hard every day in practice, put the team first, and compete hard every match. We are incredibly excited to begin this championship journey with this amazing, high character team," said head coach Steve Moore.
 
The men have won 20 Southland Conference titles since 2007 and entered last week's national rankings at No. 79. A&M-Corpus Christi men's tennis has won the second-most conference championships in the history of the league for any sport.
 
UIC will play its first-ever SLC match after joining as an affiliate member this season. The Flames have wins this year over Marquette, Davidson and Chicago State.
 
A&M-Corpus Christi Tennis
- 14 NCAA Tournaments
- 30 SLC Championships
- 4 Top-40 National Rankings
- 3.0 GPA 39 Straight Semesters
- Islanders have received a No. 3 seed at the NCAA Tournament three times
- Women's tennis has cracked the ITA top-75 national rankings three times
- Men's tennis has cracked the ITA national rankings 10 consecutive years
- Ranked nationally in NCAA DI as high as No. 35 for the men and No. 60 for the women
 
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