CORPUS CHRISTI – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley men's tennis team is set to participate in the H-E-B Tournament of Champions on Friday as they open the tournament against No. 28 University of South Alabama at 10 a.m. at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Courts.
 
UTRGV will play two matches on Friday, as they will either continue on in the main bracket to face the winner between DePaul and Louisiana Lafayette or on to the back draw against the loser of the same match. The second match will start at 5 p.m.
 
Who Else?
Other schools that will be participating in the H-E-B Tournament of Champions along side UTRGV and South Alabama include: DePaul, Louisiana Lafayette, New Mexico State, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, UTSA and Arizona.
 
Last Time Out
UTRGV (2-10) fell at home to Louisiana Lafayette 1-6 on Tuesday at the Orville Cox Tennis Center.
 
UTRGV was only able to secure one of the three doubles matches as the team of Yehonatan Kaufman and Clément Sarradin defeated Pearse Dolan and Elio Lago 7-6 on court three.
 
In singles, Louisiana Lafayette the first four matches to clinch the win but Elliot Johnstone would deny them the shutout as he picked up a 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 victory over Dolan on court two.
 
On court three, Kaufman took his match against Vlad Kramarov to three sets. He fell in the first set 6-7 and then answered back with a 7-5 win in the second. In the tiebreaker, Kaufman stayed close before Kramarov won 10-6.
   
Scouting South Alabama
South Alabama is 12-2 on the season and is currently riding an 11-match win streak while being ranked No. 28 in the ITA Rankings.
 
They are coming off of a 4-1 road win over Alabama Birmingham on Saturday, February 25.
 
South Alabama is led former UTRGV student-athlete Juan Cruz Soria who has already recorded 20 overall victories, which include the fall. He posted a 9-4 tournament record in the fall semester and has an 11-1 record in the dual match season.
 
South Alabama has two others that have recorded double-digit victories in the spring in Loic Cloes and Tuki Jacobs who have posted 12 and 10 wins respectively.
 
In doubles, South Alabama has used 13 different combinations while posting a 23-11 record. Soria and Jacobs have teamed up for five doubles wins, which leads the team but have six different combinations that are undefeated this season.
 
South Alabama's only two losses on the season came against Florida State and Troy back at the FSU Invitational to open the season.
 
Scouting DePaul and Louisiana Lafayette
Louisiana Lafayette is 10-4 after defeating UTRGV on Tuesday. They are led by Arthur Libaud, who has posted a 9-3 record this season and has also teamed up with Jamie Fraser to post a 10-1 record in doubles.
 
DePaul is 7-3 on the season while going 6-0 at home. They are coming off of a 0-4 loss to Purdue on February 25 after defeating IUPUI 4-0 earlier in the day.
 
Nathan de Veer leads DePaul with a 7-2 singles record while playing all of his matches at the No. 1 spot.
 
In doubles, DePaul has used seven different team combinations while Fran Tonejc and Christopher Casati lead the way with a 7-1 record this spring. The only other doubles team to have won more than one match is the duo of de Veer and Alex Galoustian who have posted a 6-1 record.
 
The All-Time Series
UTRGV is 0-4 all-time against South Alabama in a series that dates back to 1993.
 
These two teams met up last season at the H-E-B Tournament of Champions where South Alabama came away with the 4-0 victory on the final day of the tournament.
 
Next Up
UTRGV will be back in action on Saturday to close out the H-E-B Tournament of Champions at either 9 a.m. or 12 p.m.