BATON ROUGE – The University of New Orleans men's tennis team is expected to take to the court for the first time since Feb. 8 on Sunday at 7 p.m. against No. 28 ranked LSU.
After dealing with three postponements in the first month of the season, a partly cloudy forecast is an appreciated result for UNO (1-1) and head tennis coach
Burzis Kanga.
The Privateers have been postponed twice against West Florida and were initially scheduled to face LSU (4-2) on Feb. 10 before weather shifted the plans for the dual.
The layoff in action may have allowed UNO an opportunity to get healthy after some early season injuries. With several players out of position in the ranks, the team has received a boost from spring add-ons
Yoshikazu Ysa and David Malgrem.
The duo has matching 2-0 marks in spring play at the No. 3 and No. 4 positions, respectively.
Malmgren's success in singles' play mirrors his results in doubles' play. Malmgren has won a match apiece in pairs' action with
Ricardo Campos and
Dominik Kardell against Xavier and Alcorn State, respectively.
UNO is the second opponent on Sunday for an LSU squad that hosts Texas A&M at 1 p.m. and already defeated Tulane 7-0 on Friday night.
Most of the Tigers' success thus far has come in doubles' play, where LSU is led by the nation's No. 23 ranked pair of Oliver Borsos and Chris Simpson. Adding to the positive results for LSU is the pairing of Neal Skupski and James Turbervill, who are presently undefeated during the dual season at the No. 3 position.
Following this weekend's match, UNO will hit a busy stretch in which they play four Gulf South Conference opponents over five days. The Privateers visit West Alabama (Mar. 1), North Alabama (Mar. 2), Alabama-Huntsville (Mar. 3) before hosting Christian Brothers (Mar. 5).
