SAN ANTONIO – Trinity University Men's Tennis heads back out on the road after its brief three-match homestand to pay visits to NCAA I University of Texas-Arlington (Sat.) and UT-Dallas (Sun.) after opening the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference slate with a pair of shutout victories Saturday.
The Tigers (4-2, 2-0 SCAC) wiped out Texas Lutheran University and University of St. Thomas last weekend in their first conference matches of 2023, improving to 3-0 against NCAA III opponents this season with February 12's 7-2 victory over Concordia University (TX).
SCAC Players of the Week: Tigers Hoard Doubles Honors, Reclaim Singles Throne
For the second time already this season, Trinity's No. 23 doubles unit of senior
Alessio Azzalini (Rome, Italy / Istituto Visconti) and first-year
Rafa Candelas Ruiz (Zacatecas, Mexico / American [ESP]) were named the SCAC Doubles Team of the Week as the duo punched in an 8-2 effort in line-one action to start the shutout afternoon performance over the Celts.
Junior
Dalton Locke (Humble, Texas / Kingwood) posted his first SCAC Singles Player of the Week honor as he clinched Saturday's opener with the Bulldogs with a 6-0, 6-3 second-line tally then returned for back-to-back 6-1 marks against Hunter-Kemball Cook of St. Thomas.
Senior
Hao Nguyen (Sugar Land, Texas / Strake Jesuit) has been heavily involved in Trinity's conference laurels thus far as he was week one's singles honoree and joined sophomore
Eric Liao (Taipei, Taiwan / Boca Prep [FL]) for the week two doubles recognition.
NCAA III Rankings: New Team Rankings March 10, Player Rankings March 17
Trinity was ranked No. 13 as a program this preseason by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), which came with singles rankings for Azzalini (No. 13) and Nguyen (No. 30) and a No. 23 ranking for Azzalini and Candelas Ruiz.
Preview: at UT-Arlington (Feb. 25; 2:00 p.m.), at UT-Dallas (Feb. 26; 1:00 p.m.)
Azzalini and Nguyen have each reached double-digit singles victories for 2022-23 including the fall tournament slate though the Italian has been used sparingly to start the dual match season as he carried an 11-3 record from the fall into 2023. Candelas Ruiz sits at 9-2 as next-in-line ahead of four other Tigers with eight victories for the academic year.
Locke and junior
Rob Chang (Aeia, Hawaii / 'lolani School) account for nearly one-third of all doubles victories for 2022-23 with a 9-2 record that includes a 2-1 start to the 2023 dual match schedule. Nguyen and Liao lead the way so far in 2023 with a 3-0 record in dual matches.
On the Mavericks: While 4-3 thus far in 2023, UT-Arlington has just one victory over a NCAA I opponent this season (Prairie View A&M, Jan. 29) though the Mavericks will battle UT-Dallas Saturday morning for the chance at a three-match winning streak ahead of the afternoon's matchup with the Tigers.
However, UT-Arlington is a line-two third set away from being on a five-match winning streak at the moment as Santiago Giamichelle was on the wrong end of a 6-4 mark that would have earned the Mavericks an upset win over No. 67 UT-San Antonio on February 11.
Saturday's contest will be the first meeting between Trinity and UT-Arlington.
On the Comets: UT-Dallas has two matches ahead of Sunday's bout with the Tigers as the SCAC's University of Dallas will pay a visit to Richardson Friday night before the Comets head to Arlington Saturday.
UT-Dallas is 1-2 to start the 2023 schedule as a 7-2 road victory over University of Mary Hardin-Baylor was followed by a 5-4 loss to No. 38 Hardin-Simmons University and a 7-0 defeat from NCAA II Harding University (AR), both at home.
Traditionally a mid-April outing over the last decade, the Tigers and Comets have met five times since 2011 with Sunday's matchup the first to be contested in the month of February. Trinity has won each of the last five meetings though the programs have battled just once since 2015. The April 7, 2021 affair saw Trinity come away from Richardson with a 6-3 victory.
Looking Ahead: Loaded NCAA III Schedule on the Horizon
No. 13 Trinity Men's Tennis has nine NCAA III matchups remaining for the 2023 regular season after Sunday's bout with UT-Dallas, eight of which feature a nationally ranked opponent, headlined by a home battle with reigning NCAA III champion No. 1 University of Chicago Thursday, March 16.
On top of the eight ranked NCAA III bouts, Trinity is also slated to take part in the annual Stag-Hen Invitational, hosted by No. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (CA) and No. 9 Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (CA), as well as pay a visit to NCAA I University of the Incarnate Word March 18.
