Austin Peay Sports Information Office
Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University men’s tennis team opens its 2014 season, 1:30pm, Friday when it takes part in the Dale Short Invitational, hosted by Middle Tennessee.
The tournament features Ohio Valley Conference rival Belmont in addition to Southern Illinois and the host Blue Raiders.
The Govs will open the tournament against the host Blue Raiders. The Governors will also play Belmont, 9:00am, Saturday and SIU, 9:00am, Sunday.Last spring, the Govs finished the season with a 13-7 overall record and went 7-2 in Ohio Valley Conference play, finishing third place behind Jacksonville State and Belmont.
The Governors will be led by a trio of seniors. Aleksas Tverijonas, who finished last season ranked 20th in singles for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Ohio Valley Regional, piled up a 17-2 record in the spring. He will be joined by classmates Dimitar Ristovski (11-6) and Iago Seffrin (9-9) in providing a strong senior top-three.
Joining the three seniors are junior Evan Borowski and sophomores James Mitchell and Manuel Montenegro.
“We are definitely looking forward to our first matches,” said head coach Ross Brown. “It is a very good feeling to come into this year with the same team as we had last year. This is going to be a very solid tournament with SIU, our conference rivals Belmont and a very strong MTSU team.”
Following the Dale Short Invitational, the Govs will hit the road again to take part in the ITA Men’s Nationals. The tournament begins September 27th in Tulsa, OK.