LAKELAND, Fla.- The Southeastern University No. 25 men's and No. 21 women's tennis teams are set to take on a solid challenge on the road in Sun Conference play this weekend. Both squads travel to West Palm Beach on Saturday to take on the Keiser University Seahawks' No. 4 men's and No. 2 women's tennis teams.
MATCHES:
Saturday, 2:00 p.m. | Patch Reef Park | Boca Raton, Fla.
No. 25 Southeastern (men) (0-0) at No. 4 Keiser (men) (2-1, 1-0 TSC)
No. 21 Southeastern (women) (1-0, 1-0 TSC) at No. 2 Keiser (women) (1-1, 1-0 TSC)
FIRE FOCUS:
- The SEU men's team is set to officially open its season after having the opener versus Coastal Georgia postponed due to rain mid-match.
- The Fire came in at No. 25 in the latest NAIA Coaches' Poll, the program's first national ranking since 2016.
- The Fire welcome back Alec Lichter and Omar Fiorenzato who each had eight singles wins last season. Lichter and Santiago Haas posted a 6-3 record in doubles play, which included going 3-0 in their Sun Conference doubles matches.
- Also back are Alexandre D'aboville, who played all 10 matches at Line 1 last season, and veteran leader Felipe Barbosa, a former all-conference selection, who was 7-5 at Line 3 last year.
- New to the lineup is Theodor Preiswerk who played in two matches at Arizona Christian in the last NAIA Tennis National Championship.
- The SEU women handled Coastal Georgia 6-1 in their season-opening match at the Beerman Family Tennis Complex on February 6.
- Southeastern won the doubles point with wins at No. 1 by Beatrice Letizia and Priscila Baptista and No. 3 by Angelique Myrtil and Gabby Marshall.
- The Fire won the top five singles lines, getting straight-sets wins from Letizia at Line 1, Baptista at Line 3, and Abigail Damon at Line 5.
- Nadezda Bijelic took her No. 2 Singles match to a third set, where she came away with a 6-2 win.
ALL-TIME SERIES:
- On the men's side, the Seahawks lead the all-time series 8-0. The last time Southeastern took a point from Keiser was 3/28/15.
- On the women's side, KU leads the all-time series 12-0. The closest deficit in the series for SEU has been 7-2, which has occurred four times, most recently on 1/28/17.
THE SEAHWAKS:
- The Keiser men are 2-1 on the season with wins over NCAA Division II Flagler (4-3) and TSC rival Warner (7-0). The lone KU loss came to NCAA Division I Florida Gulf Coast 4-3.
- The Seahawks feature two individuals ranked in the Oracle ITA NAIA Top-25 singles' competitors with junior Luke Simkiss at No. 6 and junior Geronimo Barrios at No. 22.
- The KU men also have two doubles' pairings ranked in the ITA NAIA Top-25. The duo of senior Ricardo Ferraris and freshman Juan Marrero are No. 6 nationally, while Simkiss and Barrios come in at No. 13.
- The Keiser women are 1-1 on the season with a 7-0 handling of Warner and a 5-2 loss to Flagler.
- Individually, the Seahawks' women feature four individuals ranked in the Oracle ITA NAIA Top-25 singles, including senior Lisa Khamassi at No. 9, junior Sarah Schaerer at No. 13, senior Dugleisy Linarez at No. 17, and freshman Madalena Peneda at No. 23.
- In doubles' play the KU women have two pairings ranked in the Oracle ITA NAIA Top-25. Linarez and freshman Joyce Nouws are the fourth-ranked pairing nationally, while Khamassi and Schaerer are No. 13.
Be sure to follow @SEUFireTennis on Twitter for all the latest updates on Fire Tennis!
