ROME, Ga. – Seniors Paolo Bonaguro and Santiago Serrano will represent the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's tennis program and the Southland Conference (SLC) at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Conference Masters Championships at Rome Tennis Center from Thursday to Sunday.
 
From the ITA Conference Masters Championships, the four singles semifinalists and two doubles finalists will qualify for their respective NCAA Championships.
 
The last time the UTRGV men's tennis program was represented in the NCAA Individual Championships was 1977 when UTRGV Hall of Famer Ron Hubbard qualified for the singles championship and joined Ricardo Eynaudi in the doubles championship.
 
Serrano earned the SLC's automatic singles bid after defeating Lamar's Leon Nickel in three sets to win the SLC Fall Championships singles title on Oct. 25.
 
The Vaqueros' first-ever individual conference tournament champion will battle against one of the top eight seeds, Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar from Cornell, on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in the opening round.
 
Bonaguro and Serrano received the SLC's doubles wildcard after finishing runner-up at the SLC Fall Championships on Oct. 25. The UTRGV duo will face Aaron Dawson and Jy Hibbert of Southern Indiana in the opening round on Thursday at 3 p.m.
 
Serrano is one of six men's tennis student-athletes to compete in both the singles and doubles draw at the ITA Conference Masters Championships including No. 72 Aleksa Pisaric (Pepperdine), Nikola Arsic (Texas Tech), Andrii Borodatiuk (South Carolina State), Jakub Jedrzejczak (Northern Arizona), and Alex Van Lumich (Lehigh).
 
The singles draw features four of the top 100 ranked men's tennis players in the country including No. 15 Amirkhamza Nasridinov (Texas A&M), No. 19 Luca Pow (Wake Forest), No. 61 Bryan Hernandez Cortes (Mississippi State), and Pisaric.
 
The doubles draw features two of the top 100 ranked men's tennis duos in the country including the No. 19-ranked duo Lasse Poertner and Pisaric (Pepperdine) and No. 86-ranked duo of Niksa Arsic and Thiago Guglieri (Texas Tech).

Fans can watch live on the ITA YouTube Channel or follow along through live stats. Fans can also remain up to date on the tournament page.
 
UTRGV Thursday Schedule
Singles
Round of 32
Santiago Serrano (UTRGV) vs. Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar (Cornell), 9 a.m.
 
Doubles
Round of 32
Paolo Bonaguro/Santiago Serrano (UTRGV) vs. Aaron Dawson/Jy Hibbert (USI), 4 p.m.
 
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