Men's Tennis | 2/19/2016 6:28:00 PM
DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern men's tennis will open the spring with a 1 p.m. neutral site matchup with Cowley County CC in Ada, Okla., on Feb. 20.
The Savage Storm enter the championship segment of the schedule picked to finish second in the Great American Conference preseason poll
SE picked up 13 points and a pair of first place votes, but finished two points behind Ouachita Baptist who had 15 points and three first place votes.
Southeastern was second despite picking up its second-straight regular season GAC Conference Championship and has not lost a regular season conference match since a 5-4 loss to OBU on March 29 of 2013, a streak of eight-straight GAC matches.
The Storm advanced to the tournament final last season after blanking HU, 6-0, but was upset by second-seeded Ouachita Baptist, 5-3.
SE posted an 18-4 record a season ago including winning streaks of six and five matches, finishing the season ranked No. 25 in the nation and just missing the postseason with a fourth-place finish in the Central region.
The Storm return all three of their all-GAC honorees from last season as well as the league's Coach of the Year in
Shawn Hamil.
That group of returners is paced by
Maksim Fil , a senior from Minsk, Belarus, who was named the league's Player of the Year as well as Newcomer of the Year after putting together a memorable season that included a 14-3 mark in singles play, including a 3-0 mark against league foes, all at the number one position.
He also added a 15-3 record in doubles play with partner
Jack Gibbens that included a 3-0 conference mark as well.
Blesa, a junior from Madrid, Spain, earns his second-straight All-GAC honors after piling up a 12-8 singles record and a 14-5 mark in doubles play with partner
Tiago Ferreira.
His doubles record includes a winning streak of 11-straight matches.
Ferreira, a senior from Lisbon, Portugal, has put together a 13-7 singles record on the year and added a 14-5 record in doubles play with his partner Blesa.
Ferreira and Blesa, as mentioned, posted an 11 match winning streak in doubles play, while on his own in singles he posted a 3-0 mark against league opponents.
Cowley County CC comes into the matchup as the No. 6 ranked team in all of NJCAA tennis and sits second in the rankings for NJCAA Region III.
