Men's Tennis 1/30/2019 5:28:00 PM

Men's Tennis Heads Out for Heavy Weekend of Competition

RIVERSIDE, Calif.—The UC Riverside Men's Tennis Team (3-2) is set to hit the road again this weekend as the Highlanders head out for a five-match road trip. UCR will face Southern Utah Thursday in Cedar City before heading to Las Vegas to take on Hawaii, UNLV, New Mexico State, and Weber State.

The Highlanders will take the momentum of an exciting 4-3 win over Air Force with them and look to tack on few more wins after a strong start to the 2018-2019 season.

WALK-OFF
The Highlanders' home-opener with Air Force was an exciting match that came down to the final set. The Falcons would earn the doubles point and shortly after take a 3-1 lead in the overall match puttiing UCR in a must win situation. Freshman Andreas Whelan-Merediz would cut the lead with a win on six and senior Kyle McCann's big win on one tied the match at 3-3. With the match on the line, junior Nabil Abdallah would fight to a three set victory on court two giving the Highlanders a hige come from behind win in walk-off fashion.

RACQUETS? OR BROOMS?
Two of UCR's three wins have come from perfect performances by the Highlanders. The team swept both Arizona Christian and Arizona-Ottawa 7-0.

HIGHLANDER HISTORY
Since Head Coach Mattias Johansson took over, the Highlanders have broken the program's Division I wins record every year:

2015-16 - 13
2016-17 - 14
2017-18 - 16

ALL-CONFERENCE
The Highlanders have a very different look from last year, but one thing that has remained is the pairing of sophomore Filip Engstrom and senior Kyle McCann who were named Big West Honorable Mentions as a doubles team last year.

Players Mentioned

Nabil Abdallah: 6' 2"; Junior

Filip Engstrom: Sophomore

Kyle McCann: 6' 1"; Senior

Andreas Whelan-Merediz: 5' 11"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

Nabil Abdallah
: 6' 2"; Junior

Filip Engstrom
: Sophomore

Kyle McCann
: 6' 1"; Senior

Andreas Whelan-Merediz
: 5' 11"; Freshman