Regional action comes to Fayetteville

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas men’s tennis team hosts two of its regional foes, UMKC and Oral Roberts, in a doubleheader on Sunday at the George M. Billingsley Tennis Center. The No. 44 Razorbacks (7-7, 1-3) see the weekend as a welcome break from the grinding matches against the top 40 opponents that the Hogs have faced in six of their last seven dual matches.

“It’ll be good break for us this weekend,” head Arkansas coach Robert Cox said. “The matches on Sunday will give us a chance to work on some things we need to improve on and it’ll give us a chance to mix up our lineups some.”

The first match of Sunday is against the UMKC Kangaroos (6-4) whom Arkansas played for the first time last season in Fayetteville. At the match, the Razorbacks came away with the 5-2 victory, winning all three doubles matches and getting singles wins from then-No. 99 Blake Strode, Connor Smith and former Razorbacks Colin Mascall and Branden Joost.

Slightly more familiar with their second opponent of the day, the Hogs will begin play against the Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts (1-5) at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. The Hogs are 6-0 lifetime against Oral Roberts, winning both matches in a 2006 doubleheader, 7-0 and 6-0, the last time the two teams met in dual match play.

Arkansas’ recently retooled doubles lineup is likely to see more new faces on Sunday as the No. 46 duo of Chris Nott and Dmitry Lebedev retain the No. 1 position for the second consecutive weekend and Strode and Matt Hogan stay at No. 2 doubles. At No. 3 doubles, Cox sees potential for a new team to come together and work its way into the lineup.

“After Nott and Lebedev and Hogan and Strode, we have long list of guys who have the opportunity to move into that third slot,” Cox said.

Play will begin against UMKC at 11 a.m. on Sunday followed by the 5:30 p.m. match with Oral Roberts. For more information and for complete coverage of Arkansas men’s tennis, log on to ArkansasRazorbacks.com.