KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) men's tennis team looks to get back to .500 on the season and in Western Athletic Conference play as it faces Grand Canyon University on Friday at 1 p.m. at Plaza Tennis Center.

Last Time Out
UTRGV (8-9) had its four-match win streak snapped with a 1-6 loss to New Mexico State.

New Mexico State swept through singles to take the 1-0 lead into singles.

UTRGV's lone point came from court four where Clément Sarradin picked up the 7-5, 6-2 win over Enrique Asmar.

UTRGV did take two of the final singles matches to three sets before New Mexico State closed out the match with wins.

Back-to-Back Player of the Week
Yehonatan Kaufman was named the WAC Tennis Player of the Week after going 3-0 over the weekend. Kaufman picked up his fifth, sixth and seventh wins while helping UTRGV to a 3-0 weekend.

Kaufman made it back-to-back weeks that UTRGV earned the award after Koby Jansen earned the honor last week.

Scouting Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon is 12-4 heading into the first conference weekend of the season. GCU is currently riding a five-match win streak after defeating Nevada, UC Davis, UT Arlington, Florida Gulf Coast, and Illinois State.

Lucas Grego and Valentin Lang lead GCU with 10 singles victories this season. As a team, GCU is 54-34 in singles play.

In doubles, GCU is 15-18 on the season with Lorenzo Fucile and Mathieu Rajaonah lead the team with a 5-4 record. Grego and Freddie Grant have posted a 4-4 record.

The All-Time Series
UTRGV is 1-3 all-time against Grand Canyon in a series that dates back to 2014.

Both teams met up last season where GCU came away with the 7-0 victory.

The last time UTRGV defeated GCU was back on March 27, 2015 when UTRGV came away with the 4-3 win at the Orville Cox Tennis Center.

Globetrotters
UTRGV currently has nine student-athletes on the roster representing five different countries, including the France (Dennis Boisseau, Clément Sarradin), United States (Jake Davidson, Zane Kohrs, Michael Loyd), Australia (Koby Jansen, Elliot Johnstone), Israel (Yehonatan Kaufman), and Argentina (Mateo Schmit).

Next Up
UTRGV will return home to close out it home portion of its schedule when it hosts Laredo Community College on Tuesday, April 3, at the Orville Cox Tennis Center at 1:30 p.m.

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