LAWTON – After being delayed a week, the Cameron University tennis programs make their spring debut on Wednesday, taking on two of the top Junior College programs in Collin County and Tyler.
The Aggie men are coming off a year where they went 12-8, but ended up making it to the South Central Regional and beating St. Mary's to advance to the National Championship Tournament in Surprise, Ariz. They were then knocked off by the No. 1 team in the country Columbus State.
Returning three key members of that Aggie lineup,
Joao Duleba,
Alvaro Chavez, and
Carlos Vidal, and with some promising newcomers, CU looks to make a return trip in May. They open the spring receiving votes in the ITA top-25 poll with sophomore
Baptiste Mercier ranked No. 48 individually after a successful fall.
Cameron's women return after an up-and-down 2021 that saw them go 9-9 overall and 3-6 in Lone Star Conference play. Head coach
Josh Cobble returns nearly everyone from that team and has added to the group with
Vasilisa Polunova returning to go along with a promising recruiting class.
Polunova joins the group of
Lea Manga,
Karolina Glowinska,
Pilar Jaurena, and
Julianne Garcia, who all had solid springs in 2021. Along with returner
Lia Woods, newcomers
Nina Pigeassou,
Anshu Okamura, and
Magda Wawrowska, and mid-year additions
Kateryna Rudenko and
Anastasia Uspenskaia, Cobble has a deep roster to get him through the tough 2022 slate.
As far as their opposition on Wednesday goes, the Tyler men are ranked No. 1 in the ITA JUCO rankings and Collin is fifth, while the women from Tyler are also ranked first and Collin is No. 8 in the ITA rankings. Cameron swept Collin last season and the women won 4-3 over TJC and the men lost 6-1.
Both teams will go on to face Southern Arkansas in Midlothian, Texas on Saturday, Feb. 12. The first Aggie tennis home matches are scheduled for Feb. 22 against Cowley County CC at 1 p.m. and the first conference matches are March 18 at DBU.
Cameron will play Collin first at 11 a.m. and then Tyler after at around 3 p.m. Results will be posted on cameronaggies.com as soon as possible after each match.
