NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Privateers men's and women's tennis teams will begin their respective spring campaigns on Friday when they host the North Alabama Lions at the Privateer Tennis Center on Friday.
The women's match will take place at 10 a.m. with the men's match to follow around 1 p.m.
Both matches were originally scheduled for Sunday but the decision was made between both sides to move it to Friday due to a high probability of inclement weather on the originally scheduled date.
The Privateer women, which have a brand new look with seven newcomers will begin the day on the courts.
In the fall season, the Privateers had several strong individual performances against a tough schedule that included the ITA Southern Regionals and an Invitational hosted by Louisiana.
Didi Bredberg Canizares had three singles wins in Lafayette. One of them was against Brooke Theis (Tulane) who was a top 60 ranked player in the class of 2020. She also advanced to the second round of the doubles draw at the ITA Regionals along with teammate,
Raluca Puscas after beating a duo from Troy.
New Orleans also got familiarity with some of their conference opponents as they had a dual match against Nicholls and a fall opener at Northwestern State. Four Privateers made the consolation final of their respective brackets at Northwestern State.
MEN BEGIN ROAD TO DEFENDING CHAMPIONSHIP
The men take to the court, looking to defend their 2022 Southland Championship, the first in men's tennis in school history.
A big portion of the championship team is returning, led by Southland Player of the Year,
Marcel Volz and Tournament MVP,
Max Heinzel. Also returning to the squad are
Espen Lagarde,
Luke Joujan,
Matthew Armbruster,
David Tesic and
Mihajlo Drobnjakovic.
The Privateers had three players qualify for the main draw of the ITA Regionals in singles. Volz was in the main draw at the outset while Heinzel and newcomer,
Karim Al-Amin both went through qualifying rounds to earn a spot.
New Orleans also had solid showings against difficult local competition in the fall opener at Southern Miss. Four Privateers earned singles wins against Southern Miss while three (Lagarde, Joujan and
Lilian Dubois) all earned victories against opponents from Louisiana who earned a 17-6 record last season.
Volz also earned a win against Tulane's Luka Petrovic who earned wins against opponents from five nationally ranked schools.
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