Four Mustangs Set To Compete At Napa Invitational
Sep 10 | Men's Tennis
DALLAS (SMU) - The SMU Mustangs men's tennis team will begin its 2015 fall slate when they go to Napa, California, for the Napa Invitational on Sept. 11-13 at the Silverado Resort.
Red-shirt senior Nate Lammons, junior Arkadijs Slobodkins, and red-shirt junior twins Hunter and Yates Johnson will be the four players that will participate in this weekend's Invitational. Lammons is coming off his most accomplished singles career last season posting a 24-9 record and entering the ITA singles rankings for the first time on March 17, coming at No. 110.
"I'm really excited for the fall season to begin," said Head Coach Carl Neufeld. "We have four players participating in this event that have worked really hard over summer. Nate Lammons is a fifth-year senior who is working towards his master's in engineering and is posed to have another great year this season. His work ethic on and off the court as a student-athlete is a perfect template of what we expect from all of our student-athletes."
Slobodkins had a strong showing of his own last year registering a career best in both singles and doubles action. The Latvian native also recorded two different unblemished marks for eight straight singles matches from Jan. 25-Feb 14 and 10 straight singles match from Feb. 28-March 28.
"Arkadijs went home in the off season to get in the best shape of his career and I'm very excited to see him perform," Neufeld said.
"The Johnson twins red-shirted last year to understand that they needed to improve their strength and conditioning as well as their technical abilities. I'm encouraged to see what we get from them, because they are recognized as one of the best doubles team in the nation and recorded the most points for doubles in the nation on the ATP tour."
The Napa Invitational will feature five other teams, including University of Pacific, University of San Francisco, Oklahoma State University, Hawaii and conference adversary Tulsa. Three of those teams finished inside the top 55 of the 2015 ITA rankings, with Tulsa at No. 28, Oklahoma St. right behind the Golden Hurricane at No. 29 and San Francisco at No. 51.
More information on the Napa Invitational can be found here.
