Men's Tennis to open season with three home matches
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Razorback men’s tennis team opens the spring schedule with a trio of matches this weekend at the Dill Indoor Tennis Center against Drake, Wichita State and Middle Tennessee State. The Hogs will face Drake and WSU on Sat., Jan. 25 and then will be back on the courts against MTSU on Sunday.
Match Info
Opponents: Drake // Wichita State // Middle Tennessee State
Dates: Jan. 25 // Jan. 25 // Jan. 26
First Serves: 12:00 p.m. // 5:00 p.m. // 2:00 p.m.
Live Stats: bit.ly/30LeQPP
The Razorbacks added three to the roster after the end of the fall schedule, including naming former Razorback Jovan Parlic as the assistant coach. Parlic, a four-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll during his career as a Razorback, comes back to Fayetteville after serving as an assistant coach at Colorado for two seasons. In 2015-16 he served as a student assistant with the Arkansas men’s team. The Hogs began the season unranked and climbed up to No. 12 in the final ranking of the season. Parlic helped coach the No. 1 and 2 singles and the No. 1 doubles pair, leading all three to a top-20 national ranking.
Head coach Andy Jackson also signed a pair of freshmen, Aleksa Bucan and Melvin Manuel, to the squad over the winter break. Bucan comes to Fayetteville from Belgrade, Serbia while Manuel joins the Hogs from Les Alluets-le-Roi, France.
The Razorback squad returns senior Enrique Paya and junior Alex Reco who led Arkansas with the most singles wins in 2019. Paya secured 21 single victories while Reco went 19-14 in his sophomore campaign. The doubles pairing of Paya and Maxim Verboven will also be back after tying for the most wins on the team last season with 13, including 10 coming at the No. 2 spot.
Quick Hits
>> Razorback head coach Andy Jackson is in his seventh season at Arkansas and has racked up 88 wins. He’s taken the Hogs to the NCAA Tournament two of the last four seasons, including a run to the regional final in which the team went 20-9 in 2016.
>> The Razorbacks have won double digit matches at home the past five seasons, including a 12-5 season last year in Fayetteville.
>> The Hogs have won their past eight spring openers.
>> Arkansas last faced Drake in 2003, picking up a 6 -1 win at home.
>> The Razorbacks are 13-1 against Wichita State all-time and have taken the last 12 meetings. Arkansas battled to a 4-3 win against the Shockers in the squads latest meeting back in 2018.
>> This will be the first meeting between Arkansas and Middle Tennessee State.
