STILLWATER, Okla. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's tennis team is excited and ready to open the 2024 spring season with a pair of matches in Stillwater this weekend. 
 
The Vaqueros will face off with the Oklahoma State (OSU) Cowboys, a team receiving votes in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) preseason poll, in an 11 a.m. match Saturday at the Greenwood Tennis Center that will be the first of the year for both squads. UTRGV faces the Omaha Mavericks at 9 a.m. Sunday back at OSU's indoor courts. 
 
"We're happy to be back. We've been practicing hard this past week and we're really motivated because we know we're going up against good teams in Oklahoma State and Omaha," senior captain Emilien Burnel said. "Everyone knows it's going to be really competitive. OSU is a really good team so everyone is excited because we can prove ourselves against them, and Omaha is a really good team, too, so everyone is going to be focused and giving their best." 
 
UTRGV is 4-9 all-time against Oklahoma State with its last victory in the series coming in 1981. During last season's doubleheader between the squads in Stillwater, junior Sam Whitehead picked up a doubles victory at No. 2 in one match, and Burnel earned a doubles win at No. 3 in the second. 
 
Sunday's match will be the first between the Vaqueros and the Mavericks. The Vaqueros will face the added challenge of playing indoors, which is something they don't do often thanks to the warm south Texas weather, but they're eager to embrace the opportunity. 
 
"Oklahoma State is going to be a great starting test for us to see where we are. That's a team that's picked to finish third in the Big 12 conference and expects to be ranked pretty high at the end of the year. It's going to be a great chance for us to go against one of the premier programs in the country," men's tennis head coach Nathan Robinson said. "Omaha is a good team, they hit the ball well. We're going to play them indoors which is kind of their advantage, but I feel like those are going to be two competitive matches for us."
 
This weekend will bring the collegiate debuts for a trio of freshmen who joined the Vaqueros in early January – Paolo Bonaguro, Santiago Serrano and Will Roberts. UTRGV returns three student-athletes who competed last spring, so Robinson said this weekend will be the "first audition" for a plethora of young talent to show where they belong in the lineup and give the returners a chance to showcase their growth. 
 
"We want to bring the right attitude and the right mentality and have the right game plans in place. There might be some execution things early, but execution we can get better at," Robinson said. "We're looking to be extremely competitive. We want to be extremely loud. We want to bring a ton of energy to both matches. We feel if we do those things, we can put ourselves in a good position." 

Support UTRGV Men's Tennis | Become a Fan on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter | Follow us on Instagram | Follow us on YouTube