GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University men's tennis team will rely on an infusion of new talent as it prepares for another challenging slate of matches in the 2021 season.
The Pioneers open play without having benefit of participating in an extensive fall schedule that typically includes several tournaments and one or more dual matches. Instead, Tusculum will be on the court in competition for the first time in nearly 11 months when the season opens this week with matches against Milligan and Lee.
"The men's team is very deep with a lot of talent. I'm excited to watch the guys grow over the course of the season," said head coach Adam Jackson, who begins his fifth season on the Pioneer sidelines. "The chemistry and excitement is there, and we are all ready to hit the courts."
Three starters from last year's squad that went 7-4 overall and 1-2 in the South Atlantic Conference are back in the singles lineup -- juniors Frank Bonacia and Vadzim Raitsou and sophomore Leon Huck.
Bonacia (Rome, Italy) went 6-4 in dual matches last season, playing primarily at flight two, in his first season after transferring from Division I Chicago State. Bonacia had a 2-1 record in conference singles and went 3-1 in matches decided by either a third set or a tiebreaker.
Raitsou (Mogilev, Belarus) was second on the team in victories last season with seven, and was 4-0 at flight six. Raitsou has a career singles record of 21-13 with the Pioneers.
Huck (Forchheim, Germany), a preseason second-team All-SAC selection in singles, was team Most Valuable Player as a freshman after going 9-1 during dual matches and 11-3 overall. Huck's only singles loss in dual matches came in a third-set tiebreaker, and six of his wins came in straight sets.
Senior Marco Meon (Karlsrhue, Germany) is the lone four-year player in the Pioneer lineup, and brings a 21-20 career record into his senior season. Meon was 4-1 in conference play in 2019.
Two additions to the Tusculum lineup who are expected to make an impact are freshmen Dmitry Bezborodov (Almaty, Kazakhstan) and Nemanja Subanovic (Subotica, Serbia).
In doubles, Huck and Subanovic along with Bonacia and Bezborodov are expected to play the top two flights. Junior Jacco Mensinga (Roden, The Netherlands) is slated to partner with junior newcomer Kenta Kondou (Saitama, Japan) at flight three.
Mensinga was 5-4 in doubles last season after going 10-10 as a freshman, while Kontou joins the Pioneers after two seasons at Missouri Valley College, where he went 5-4 in doubles last year and 8-5 in singles.
Additional lineup depth will be provided by junior Max Stam (Cape Town, South Africa), who went 3-2 in singles as a freshman, along with freshmen Cole Hedden (Clinton, Tennessee), Lluis Tomas (Barcelona, Spain) and Michael Younan (Merida, Mexico).
