The Malone University men's tennis program, under the guidance of second-year head coach Brian Mogus, will look to dramatically improve upon the team's 1-16 record from last spring.  And while the record itself was not what the team hoped for, each player improved as the season progressed.  Three of the seven players on this year's roster return from last season while four outstanding newcomers join the program.

Although the team consists of two seniors, they will look to the four incoming freshmen to help out as well.  The seven-man roster sports two seniors, one junior and four freshmen.

Setting the pace for the team this year is freshman Youssef ElSonbaty and senior Nate Davis.  Youssef will be playing the number one singles position and Nate will be at the number two singles spot. 

“Every part of Youssef's game is strong and he's just a really smart player,” said Mogus. “He has a tendency to wear his opponent down or get under their skin with his consistent play.”

“And with Nate having played at number one all of last year, he has a great deal of experience competing at the top of the lineup which should help him at the number two spot this year.”

Senior Alex Steinmetz and freshmen Steffan Dwarkasingh and Vladyslav Dyenyezhka are all battling for the number three spot with Steinmetz, who played at number two last season, being the likely one to be in that spot initially.

“Alex came back playing very aggressively this spring after a solid fall season,” commented Mogus.  “His improvement is evident and his senior leadership, along with Nate's, will have an impact on our team.”

“Steffan and Vladyslav are very offensive-minded players with a good understanding of the game. They definitely like to be in control of the point and are in attack mode very often.”

Freshman Andrew Hill will likely round out the lineup by playing in the sixth singles spot.  “He's been a nice surprise with his steady improvement over the last number of months,” noted Mogus.  “He's very coachable and it has been showing.”

Closing out the lineup is junior Brett Krejci, who is currently rehabbing a knee injury from last fall, and who will also see some time at the number six singles position.

The doubles lineup will include Sonbaty and Davis at #1 while the other two spots have not been solidified as of yet.

“Vlad and Andrew have been teaming together recently as well as Alex and Stefan,” noted Mogus. “Either duo could play in the #2 spot initially but teams could still be switched around a bit with Brett working in there after recovering from his injury.”

“We are very, very young as we head into our first-season of GLIAC competition. The players have been beating up on each other the past number of weeks and are ready to unleash their games on someone else. There really is no weak team in the GLIAC and we expect fierce competition in every match.  Our guys have been working extremely hard in preparation for this first season of NCAA Div. II competition and we are excited to get the season underway.”

The Pioneers' spring season commences on Feb. 17th and 18th when Malone travels to the upper peninsula of Michigan to face Lake Superior State University and Michigan Tech. The Pioneers will then play three other contests (home and away) before heading to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina during spring break (March 4th - 8th), where they will compete in seven matches.