EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros men's tennis team hits the road for a doubleheader as they face the University of the Incarnate Word Cardinals and the Our Lady of the Lake Saints on Saturday.  
 
The Vaqueros will face the Cardinals at 9 a.m. at the UIW Tennis Courts and then will head to the OLLU Tennis Courts to face the Saints at 3 p.m.
 
Last Time Out
The Vaqueros (3-4) are coming off of a 1-6 loss at the hands of the Lamar Cardinals back on February 7.
 
Juan Cruz Soria recorded the only point for the Vaqueros as he defeated Michael Feucht 7-6, 6-4 at the No. 1 spot. He also teamed with Yehonatan Kaufman to pick up a doubles win after they defeated Jeandre Hoogenboezem and Nikita Lis 6-3 at the No. 1 spot.
 
Racking Up the Accolades
Juan Cruz Soria's performace against Lamar wrapped up a weekend where he went undefeated, which led him to be named WAC Player of the Week.
 
Soria went 3-0 in singles and 2-0 in doubles. Soria added a win over Texas A&M's Aleksandre Bakshi and Prairie View A&M's Christian Waldron to go along with his win over Feucht.
 
He also teamed with Kaufman to pick up a doubles win over Waldron and Sergio Avella to go along with the win over Lamar.
 
It was the second WAC Player of the Week award for the Vaqueros after Kaufman earned the honor for the week of Feb. 2.
 
Scouting the Cardinals
The Cardinals are 2-4 on the season and will be facing Tyler Junior College on today before facing the Vaqueros on Saturday. They have lost two straight heading into their match with Tyler Junior College after falling 3-4 to Laredo Community College and 0-4 to Rice.
 
The Cardinals return six from last year's squad in seniors Tucker Brown, Ryan Hoverson and Josip Smoljan, juniors Andre Buchanan-Dempsey and Nicholas Ramirez and sophomore Joey Vatanadilok.
 
The Cardinals have three players with three singles victories in Smoljan, Sebastian Mortier and Francisco Bendana. Mortier and Vatanadilok have teamed to lead the doubles teams with four victories.
 
Scouting the Saints
The Saints kicked off their spring at the Schreiner Invitational on February 8.
 
The Saints bring back eight from last year's team in senior Zahry Edmond, junior Jacob Galaviz, senior AJ Gallardo, senior Tanis Martinez, sophomore Ross Marzetti, junior Bernardo Pegas, sophomore Mathias Rocha and sophomore Orren Williams.
 
Galaviz was named co-player of the tournament at Schreiner after going 2-1 in singles.
 
The All-Time Series
The Vaqueros are 3-2 all-time against Incarnate Word in a series that dates back to 2001. Both of these teams met last season as the Vaqueros defeated the Cardinals 4-3 on February 7, 2015 at the Orville Cox Tennis Center.
 
It will be the first match between the Vaqueros and the Saints.
 
Globetrotters
The Vaqueros currently have eight student-athletes on the roster representing six different countries, including the Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Australia, Spain, Israel and Argentina.
 
Next Up
The Vaqueros be back on the court on February 26 when they host St. Mary's University at the Brownsville Tennis Center.
 
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