PENSACOLA, Fla. – After a dominant showing last week, the West Florida Men's Tennis Team will return to play on Tuesday when 22nd-ranked West Alabama comes to town. This match will mark the first of five straight conference matches for the Argonauts as they look to remain perfect in conference play on the season.
Currently ranked as the number five team in the country, West Florida is coming off of a week in which they went 3-0 including a win over the fourth-ranked University of Indianapolis. This has the Argonauts currently sitting with a 9-2 record with only seven matches remaining in the regular season.
Over these seven remaining matches, West Florida is scheduled to face four ranked opponents including #22 West Alabama on Tuesday, #11 Delta State, #7 Valdosta State, and #23 North Georgia so getting off to a strong start against the Tigers is crucial.
About the Argos – Seemingly hitting their grove at the perfect time in the season, West Florida has now won their past four matches and has an impressive 9-2 record with just over half of their matches played. This record includes wins over three ranked opponents including two top ten teams when the Argos took down #7 Drury from the ITA National Team Indoor Championship as well as #4 UINDY this past Thursday.
This record is bolstered by some great doubles play as the Argonauts have secured the lone point in ten of their matches on the year.
Salvador Bandeira and partner
Gabriel Nery lead the way for West Florida as they currently hold a 9-1 record on the season. In addition to this strong pairing,
Nicolas Lecoutre and
William Shkrob have also teamed up to secure an 8-2 record as a pair to become another key reason for the Argos doubles success. Overall, UWF is 24-7 on the season in doubles and has done enough to secure that crucial point in all but one match this year.
Singles play has seen the Argos finally start to find their rhythm from the top of the lineup as
Serdar Bojadjiev and Bandeira both picked up huge wins against fourth-ranked UINDY this past week.
Bojadjiev, playing from the No. 1 position, had a great week for the Argonauts finishing 2-0 in singles including a straight-set victory over the 12
th-ranked player in the nation this past Thursday. Bandeira was also able to lock-in when the Argos faced UINDY picking up a huge 6-3, 6-2 victory to help secure the win for West Florida.
In addition to these two players,
Juan Cabrera is another player who has played very well in singles starting 9-0 on the season in singles. Ranked 30
th in the nation, Cabrera has shown why he has received such recognition by taking down everyone he has gone against playing from numerous positions on the year.
About the Tigers – West Alabama comes to Pensacola as the 22
nd-ranked team in the nation and with a 4-4 record to show for their efforts so far this season. These four losses have all been at the hands of teams either ranked or receiving votes so this Tigers team is surely one not to mess with.
The Tigers are led by Christopher Bulus who has gone 6-1 from the No. 1 position on the season to be a steady force in West Alabama's lineup. Ilia Dehodiuk has been another steady player for the Tigers with a 6-2 record himself from the No. 3 position.
It will be a battle atop of the GSC standings on Tuesday as both the Tigers and the Argos are currently 3-0 in conference play to start their seasons. West Alabama has taken down Montevallo, Mississippi College, and Lee to begin their conference schedule on the right note.
Schedule for Tuesday - The match between these two ranked teams is slated to begin at 1 PM from the Ralph "Skeeter" Carson Tennis complex. As always, be sure to follow along with GoArgos.com as well as the social media pages for UWF Men's Tennis for updates as well as recaps from the match.
How to Follow the Argos: For complete information on UWF Tennis, follow the team on Twitter and Instagram at @
TennisUWF on Twitter and @
uwfmenstennis on Instagram.
