ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com)—The No. 48 UCF men's tennis team heads out on its first road trip of the year this weekend. The Knights face TCU on Saturday, followed by a matchup with No. 29 SMU on Sunday. The Black and Gold round out their trip with a match against No. 11 Baylor on Monday.
On Tuesday, senior Chris Barrus earned his first American Athletic Conference Player of the Week honor after going 2-0 at No. 4 singles and 1-0 at No. 2 doubles. The Naples, Fla., native posted a 6-2, 6-0 victory on Feb. 17 to lead the Knights (6-1) to a 6-1 win over Tennessee Tech. Barrus followed that up with a 6-1, 6-2 win against Florida Atlantic on Feb. 19 to give the Black and Gold another 6-1 victory. He teamed up with Enrique Paya to clinch the doubles point against the Owls, 6-4, at the No. 2 spot.
Later that day, UCF found itself in the Oracle/ITA team rankings for the first time since Feb. 17, 2015, coming in at No. 48. The Knights join four other American Athletic Conference teams in the rankings, Tulane, SMU, USF and Tulsa. The Black and Gold are also one of five Florida teams in the Top 50.
UCF is coming off a 6-1 victory over Florida Atlantic. Barrus leads the Knights with a 6-0 record, followed by No. 93 Korey Lovett and junior Danny Kerznerman each with 6-1 singles records this season.
TCU enters the weekend with a 3-3 overall record. The Horned Frogs dropped a tight 4-3 decision to No. 19 Columbia on Feb. 12. TCU has two players ranked in singles and two teams ranked in doubles. Cameron Norrie is ranked No. 19 in singles, while Guillermo Nunez finds himself at No. 112. In doubles, Trevor Johnson and Reese Stalder are ranked 10th, while Nunez and Alex Rybakov are No. 14. This is the first meeting between the two teams.
American Athletic Conference opponent No. 29 SMU enters the weekend with a 7-2 record. In their last outing, the Mustangs defeated UT-Arlington 4-1. SMU has two ranked singles players, No. 46 Ronald Slobodchikov and No. 51 Hunter Johnson. Johnson teams up with Yates Johnson for a spot in the doubles rankings (No. 42). SMU holds a 3-0 record in the all-time series against UCF. The Knights fell 4-0 against the Mustangs in the quarterfinals of the 2016 American Athletic Conference Tournament.
A match against No. 11 Baylor will round out the trip for the Knights. The Bears host Abilene Christian and UT-Arlington on Saturday before taking on UCF on Monday. Baylor enters the weekend with an 8-2 record. The Bears have three players ranked in singles, Juan Benitez (No. 13), Maxime Tchoutakian (No. 39) and Johannes Schretter (No. 50). Schretter is paired with Will Little at No. 53 in the doubles rankings In their last outing, the Bears fell 4-2 against No. 12 USC. This is the first time Baylor and UCF will see action against each other.
Following the road trip, the Knights return to the USTA National Campus to take on Davidson on March 5 for a four-match home stand. UCF will then host Penn State for USTA College MatchDay on March 8, and takes on Tulsa on March 10. The Black and Gold round out their home stand against South Alabama on March 12.
Live results will be available all weekend long.
