Men's Tennis Opens Season At FSU Invitational

LAFAYETTE, La. – The defending Sun Belt Conference champion Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns men's tennis team kicks off their spring season this weekend, traveling to Tallahassee, Fla., to take part in the Florida State Invitational.

The eight-team, bracket-style tournament will feature five nationally-ranked teams, including the Cajuns, who open the 2015 season ranked No. 66 in the initial ITA team rankings.

"This weekend we face and will see five nationally-ranked teams and face as many as three of them., including No. 35 Florida State," Louisiana head coach Mark Jeffrey said. "It is early in the season but it will be good to see what level we are at come this weekend".

Louisiana will take on No. 72 North Florida in the opening round at 10:30 am CT on Jan. 10 before moving on to the winner's or consolation bracket to face off against either Furman or Denver.

The other half of the bracket consists of opening-round matches between No. 35 Florida State against South Alabama, and No. 70 Central Florida against No. 71 St. John's.

"We are playing one of the, if not the toughest Division 1 schedule for the month of January." Jeffrey said. "We play 6-7 nationally-ranked teams, two of which are inside the top five, including the No. 1 USC. We understand as a team that we are going to take a few hits but our goals are to go beyond what we did last year in advancing to the final 32 of the NCAA tournament and that's going to take a higher level of consistency and competiveness. We have asked the guys to step up and meet these challenges head on."

Following the FSU Invitational, the Cajuns will open up their home schedule on Jan. 17 with a match against Lamar before prepping for three consecutive matches against nationally-ranked opponents, beginning Jan. 23 in Los Angeles against preseason No. 1 USC. A day later they will take on either No. 50 UNC-Wilmington or No. 56 Santa Clara, then travel to Waco for a Jan. 29 meeting with No. 6 Baylor.

The Cajuns return several members of last year's team that claimed the SBC championship, including juniors Jake Wynan and Edgar Lopez, and senior Damian Farinola, each of whom earned all-conference honors a year ago.

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Players Mentioned

Damian Farinola

Edgar Lopez

Jake Wynan