The University of Louisville men’s tennis team will return to the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center for a three-game home stand this weekend. The Cards will play host to Alabama A&M and Purdue in a doubleheader Friday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. respectively. Following Friday’s twinbill, Louisville will open ACC play against No. 1 Virginia Sunday at 3:30 p.m. Admission is free.
“We are excited about hosting Alabama A&M and Purdue,” said UofL head coach Rex Ecarma. “This is our first ever dual match with Alabama A&M and the players are excited to play. We play a lot of teams from the Big Ten since they are pretty close geographically and have great programs but it has been over a Decade or longer since we have played Purdue. They are loaded with talent and experience. It will be a great test for our team.”
The Cardinals (2-1) opened the 2017 dual match season on Jan. 20 with a doubleheader sweep of Samford and Chicago State. Two days later, they faced their first ranked team on the road when they fell 4-2 at then-No. 13 Northwestern.
About Louisville
The Cardinals are led by freshman Parker Wynn (North Richland Hills, Texas) who carries a 19-6 overall singles record and is 3-0 in dual matches playing mostly at No. 2.
Sophomore Christopher Morin-Kougoucheff (Capbreton, France) holds down the No. 1 spot in singles and had tallied a 13-5 mark while going 2-0 in dual matches.
Sophomore Brandon Lancaster (Louisville) carries a 14-5 overall record and is also undefeated in three dual matches at the No. 5 position.
Senior Sean Donohue (Louisville, Ky.) leads the Cards in doubles with a 13-3 overall record and has paired with Wynn for perfect 8-0 mark.
• Head coach Rex Ecarma is in his 27th season at UofL and has compiled a 425-284 overall record.
Cards against the opponents
Alabama A&M
Series Record: First meeting
Scouting the Bulldogs: Alabama A&M (0-1) is coming off of a 7-0 loss to Middle Tennessee last weekend. Seven of the eight players on the Bulldogs’ roster are underclassmen – Carlos Salas is the lone senior on the team.
Purdue
Series Record: Purdue leads 5-0
Last Meeting: March 10, 2000 – Purdue won 4-3 in West Lafayette
Scouting the Boilermakers: Purdue brings a 3-2 record into the weekend. The Boilermakers opened the season with a win over Ball State followed by a pair of victories over Chicago State. Last weekend, Purdue dropped a pair of matches to No. 5 Georgia and Alabama at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend.
– The Boilermakers boast the fourth-ranked doubles team in the nation in Gergely Madarasz and Ricky Medinilla and a pair of ranked singles players. Madarasz stands at No. 49 in singles and Benjamin Ugarte stands at No. 70.
Virginia
Series Record: UVA leads 4-0
Last Meeting: March 4, 2016 – Virginia won 7-0 in Charlottesville
Scouting the Cavaliers: Defending NCAA champion Virginia enters the weekend atop the ITA national team rankings. The Cavaliers will play their season opener at Vanderbilt Friday evening.
UVA returns six players from the 2015 and 2016 NCAA Championship teams, including senior two-time All-Americans Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Luca Corinteli. UVA has won 13-consecutive ACC regular-season titles and have won the NCAA team title in three of the last four seasons.
Up next:
Following this weekend’s matches, Louisville will travel to Bloomington to face Indiana on Wednesday.
Lori Korte
Assistant Sports Information Director