After missing out on the NCAA Tournament last year, the SMU men's tennis team is back with a more experienced and battle-tested lineup.

The Mustangs open the tournament on Friday morning in Austin against Princeton. It's a return to postseason play for the Mustangs, who made three straight tournament appearances before last season. 

"It's a great opportunity," SMU Head Coach Grant Chen said. "Austin is close by. We know it pretty well, and we are also pretty familiar with the Princeton team. They're very good. They're very well coached. They've got some Texas kids on their team. And no matter what, we're going to be ready for a battle."

This time last year, the Mustangs weren't in the postseason conversation. They went 2-11 in ACC play during their first season in the conference. They turned it around to an 8-5 record this year, doing so in a conference that put 10 teams into this year's field, including No. 1 overall seed Wake Forest.

"I think all the lumps that we went through actually have led to where we are today," Chen said. "The ACC remains one of the premier, elite tennis conferences in the country. As we can now see, the number of ACC teams that made the field is truly remarkable."

Leading the Mustangs is a veteran lineup. Trevor Svajda is in his third season playing No. 1 singles at SMU, grad transfer Alex Finkelstein holds the No. 2 spot and Jerry Barton is the other senior in the starting lineup. Even Georgi Georgiev, now in his second season, has settled in at No. 3 after adjusting to the transition from Bulgaria.

That experience is something the team didn't have a year ago.

"They're hungry, they're excited, and have a lot of experience from the top couple spots," Chen said. "With Trevor at the helm and a grad student like Alex, and our captain, Jerry, and Georgie has another year under his belt, they're really excited for the opportunity to compete this weekend."

A lot of that has to do with the evolution and growth of the SMU players who were on the roster a year ago, especially Svajda. 

In the fall, Svajda was the runner up at the NCAA Division I Men's Singles Championship and held the No. 1 singles ranking multiple times this spring. He has been the anchor at the top of SMU's lineup going 21-2.

"It's hard to put into words what Trevor has done for himself, but also, more importantly, the program," Chen said. "As he's continued to grow and evolve these last couple seasons, the team has just gotten better. I think he's been able to put the team on his back on so many occasions, and lead by being so effective and dominant at the top position."

As a team, the Mustangs have also proven they can win big matches. They beat then-No. 22 Arizona State during the ITA Indoor National Championships, beat Duke, North Carolina and No. 8 Baylor in a five-day span.

"We didn't win every match this year, but we won many pivotal key matches," Chen said. "These are just absolutely defining matches that allowed the guys to play their style, play free and also enjoy being on the tennis court. We got to see a lot of their best tennis a lot more often this season."

Even in the losses, the Mustangs proved they could compete with top teams. 

Of SMU's 11 losses, four came against Top 10 opponents at the time, three more against Top 25 teams and 10 were against programs that made the NCAA Tournament.

"We've been able to push every single one of those teams to the brink. We lost 4-3 to Ohio State. We lost 4-2 to Mississippi State, lose really, really close to TCU and a few of these other schools," Chen said. "It just shows what our team ability can be at. But the beauty of sports is, we've got to show up every single day. And this season, we showed up a lot."

While a win could set up a second-round matchup with No. 2-seeded Texas, the Mustangs have spent the season focused on staying in the moment. SMU won't change that approach this weekend.

All eyes are on Princeton.

"One thing that we've really focused on this season has been to stay present, to live in the moment, and to not really look too far ahead or to dwell on yesterday," Chen said. "I think the guys have really done that. So the next couple of days, it's really about embracing the moment and embracing the present."