IRVINE, Calif. – A new year, a new coach and now a new chance to prove themselves out on the court.
The Concordia University Irvine tennis teams are gearing up for the new spring season and have both earned respect from across the league in the PacWest Conference Preseason Polls.
Head coaches around the league picked the CUI women to be No. 4 among the 15 programs.
Senior
Tiffany Carrillo and sophomore
Sophie Rachor are the top-ranked doubles pairing in the ITA NCAA DII West Region rankings and ranked No. 10 nationally. The talented duo won the ITA West Region Tournament hosted by Fresno Pacific this past September and represented CUI at the ITA Cup in Rome, Georgia.
Carrillo also enters the season ranked regionally in singles No. 6 in the ITA DII rankings.
Jessica Bear and
Alicia Da Re give the Golden Eagles four veteran players to match up against opponents, along with returners
Kaia Paulo and
Kimia Rahmani. Incoming freshmen
Emilie Lugon-Moulin, Brynn Johnson and
Giovanna Castro join the fray this year and will look to make an immediate impact on the court.
CLICK HERE for the full PacWest women's tennis preseason poll
On the men's side, Concordia is slated No. 6 in the preseason rankings. Graduate student
Mattis Le Montagner hails from France and is ranked no. 3 in the ITA regional Top 10. Plus, the doubles pair of
Spencer Cinco and newcomer LeMiel Tairahoy come in at No. 7 in the ITA doubles preseason rankings.
Cinco is the new SAAC representative for the squad and is joined by returning sophomores
Adam Kartzinel and
Alex Burns. Junior
Mario Aleksic comes to Concordia from Maryville University while
Max Renz of Germany enters his first collegiate season in the states.
CLICK HERE for the full PacWest men's tennis preseason poll.
The two Concordia tennis squads are slated to open their regular season with matches at The Redlands on Saturday, Feb. 3 with the ladies set to begin at 10:00 a.m. The men are slated to follow at approximately 2 p.m.
Both teams made the NCAA DII Regional Tournament in two of the past three seasons, and both squads finished fourth in the PacWest Conference Tournament last spring.
CLICK HERE for the CUI women's tennis schedule
CLICK HERE for the CUI men's tennis schedule
