Men's Tennis Set for Florida Gulf Coast Invitational

The University of Louisville men's tennis team will travel to Ft. Myers, Fla., to compete at the Florida Gulf Coast Invitational Jan. 13-15. Participating teams in tournament include host Florida Gulf Coast, South Florida, and Wisconsin.

"We're really excited about the tournament," said UofL head coach Rex Ecarma. "When you've got Florida Gulf Coast at home and South Florida, Wisconsin – the level of competition is going to be super high, so you'll get to know what type of players you have, what doubles teams work, what guys are comfortable with what position in the lineup… it'll feel like a dual match right away. You'll see how the team responds as far as how hard they compete. I expect to see a ton of close matches and we'll see how they compete under pressure. I'm excited about it – we're ready for the season."

The Cardinals will officially open the 2017 dual match season on Jan. 20 when they play host to Samford at 12 p.m. and Chicago State at 6 p.m. at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center.

2017 Season Outlook
The University of Louisville men's tennis team enters the 2017 season with a mix of talented veterans and newcomers combined with a renewed determination to take the program to new heights.

The Cardinals return six players from last season's team including senior Sean Donohue and redshirt junior Santiago Salazar. Sophomores George Hedley, Brandon Lancaster, Christopher Morin-Kougoucheff and Michael Quang also look to capitalize on a year of experience in the vaunted ACC. Additionally Louisville welcomes five newcomers with the addition of junior college transfers Ciro Lampasas and Nicolas Rouanet and freshmen Clement Filho, Fredrik Moe and Parker Wynn.

Donohue, the lone senior on the team, is coming off of a successful fall campaign in which posted a team-best eight doubles wins and teamed with Wynn to claim the Commodore Scramble doubles title in the fall. He also registered eight singles victories in the fall season.

Salazar had a solid fall season, producing seven singles wins and claiming the Louisville Invitational 'B' Division title.

Hedley stepped into a starting role last season and led the team with 25 doubles victories and posted 12 dual match singles wins while playing mostly at Nos. 3 and 5.

Team captain Morin-Kougoucheff registered 20 singles wins and 22 doubles victories last season. He played a pivotal role in the Cards' lineup with 12 wins at the No.2 singles spot. Morin-Kougoucheff opened his sophomore season with nine singles wins including a quarterfinal appearance in the Dick Vitale Clay Court Classic.

Lancaster is coming off of a stellar freshman campaign in which he tallied a team-best 23 singles wins including 10 dual match victories while playing at Nos. 3, 4 and 5.

Quang collected 10 singles wins in his rookie season opened his sophomore campaign with six singles wins while standing second on the team with six doubles victories in the fall.

The Cardinals add experience with the addition of Lampasas and Rouanet, both of whom are coming off of impressive junior college campaigns. Lampasas helped his Tyler JC team to a No. 2 ranking and earned the 2016 Junior College Most Improved Player Award. He opened his career at Louisville with eight singles wins in the fall.

Rouanet also brings a stellar resume after spending the last two seasons at ASA Miami JC where he won the Flight 2 Junior College singles and doubles championship and posted a 27-4 career singles record. He was named Region 3 Junior College Freshman of the Year in 2015 and followed that feat by earning Region 3 Sophomore of the Year honors in 2016. Rouanet began his UofL career with eight singles wins in the fall.

The freshman class consists of three standouts: Filho, Moe and Wynn. In the fall season, the trio combined for 25 singles wins highlighted by Wynn's team-best 14 victories.

The Schedule Ahead
The Cardinals will face a daunting 2017 slate which includes four teams that finished last season ranked among the top 25 in the nation.

The Cardinals will play 21 matches at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center including defending national champion, top-ranked Virginia and No. 5 North Carolina. Also featured on the Louisville's slate are nine 2016 NCAA tournament teams and 13 top 75 opponents.

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Players Mentioned

Sean Donohue

Clement Filho

George Hedley

Ciro Lampasas

Brandon Lancaster

Fredrik Moe

Christopher Morin-Kougoucheff

Michael Quang

Nicolas Rouanet

Santiago Salazar

Parker Wynn

University of Louisville Athletics