VIDEO: Jean Love Interview

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman men's tennis team opens the season up in the sunshine state against Florida Tech and Palm Beach Atlantic this weekend.

"We've been working on our fitness and refining some of our dobles combinations," Carson-Newman tennis coach Jean Love said. "We've got some new players that have mixed in well with our returners and has given this team a little bit of a different complexion. We can play well and we can compete well."

Last season Carson-Newman finished with a 6-14 overall record and 3-8 conference record. The Eagles finished 0-7 against region competition and ended last season on a five match losing streak.

The Eagles are led by second team All-SAC selection JP Oliveira at the No.1 singles spot. Last season Oliveira went 8-11 at the No.1 singles spot. Jesus Barcete and Kevin Mendes also return for the Eagles in the 2017 campaign. Both Barcete and Mendes finished last season with nine victories.

Florida Tech finished last season 12-11 overall with a 1-5 conference record. The Panthers were 0-6 against nationally ranked competition.

The Panthers had five of their top six singles players finish last season with double digit victories. Juniors Aria Canadell and Ricardo Corona return as the No. 1 and No. 2 singles players on the team. Canadell finished last season 12-9 at the No. 1 spot, while Corona finished with a 10-6 record at the No. 2 singles spot.

"We haven't really looked at that becasue we are going to be focused on ourselves," Love said. "We have to compete well and be relentless in what we do in terms of playing every point to the max." 

In doubles play the Panthers return all three tandems from last season. The No. 3 doubles team of Majed Alshaikh and Wade Ball were the only doubles team to record a winning record last season at 14-6.

Palm Beach Atlantic finished last season with a 10-9 overall record and the Sailfish picked up wins over nationally ranked opponents West Liberty University and Florida Southern. The Sailfish ended last season on a five match losing streak, with the final loss coming to Florida Tech.

The Sailfish are a very youthful group, eight out of the ten players on the roster are sophomores or freshmen. Only Pietro de Silva, Stanislav Feofilov and Thomas Salmon had significant playing time at singles last season.

"Will take what happens on Friday, will make those adjustments as needed on Saturday morning." Love said, "Hopefully our experience can help us, but we will stay focused on us and what we do."

Salmon had a combined record of 9-8 at the No.4 and No.5 spots, as well as a single victory in the No. 1 spot last season. De Silva went 7-6 primarily at the No.5 and No.6 spots. Feofilov was 6-4 last season while seeing time at the No.5 and No. 6 spots as well.

In doubles play the Sailfish return the duo of Salmon and de Silva who went 11-8 overall and saw the most action at the No.3 position.   

-CN-