Season Preview With Coach Asher
2014 Schedule

DETROIT (1/9/2014) -- Snow might be on the ground, but that just means all the action will be indoors as the University of Detroit Mercy men's tennis team begins its regular season with matches at Western Michigan on Friday and No. 47 Michigan State on Saturday.

UDM will be in search of its first-ever wins against both programs as the Titans are 0-5 against the Spartans – a team that has two singles players ranked in the Midwest in Aaron Pfister (9) and Drew Lied (14) – and 0-13 versus the Broncos, a program which features Nadin Indre ranked No. 11 in the Midwest.

Detroit played a light slate in the fall with just two events on the schedule as head coach Grant Asher is in his sixth year at the helm of the program. 

The Titans will have a young roster entering the season as they lost six of their eight letter winners from a year ago, totaling 42 of their 56 singles wins. The only players returning are junior Jay Joshi and sophomore Rafael Orantes.

Joshi has seven singles wins and 28 doubles victories in his two years as a Titan, with a 4-2 record in the Horizon League in 2013, while Orantes had a fine rookie season tying for the team-lead with 12 singles wins. He was also 3-3 in the HL playing mostly at the No. 5 and 6 spot.

Six newcomers are on the roster, but two of those netters have some experience in graduate senior Bobby Cawood and sophomore Tanguy Crosnier. Cawood played three years of tennis for Hope College and left the school third in total wins (104), fourth in singles wins (56) and sixth in doubles triumphs (48). Crosnier did not see action last year with UDM, but was able to practice all season long against the senior-laden Titans.

Four rookies are on the squad in Chance Conley, Ismail Kadyrov, Patryk Koscielski and Matt White. Conley had a great prep career recording a 124-21 record and winning a Division 4 state singles title in 2011 at Portland High School, earning All-State First Team in all four years.

Kadyrov posted 90 singles wins at Vernon Hills High School in Vernon Hills, Ill., and was All-State First Team as a junior. Koscielski hails from London, England, and had the best record in the fall going 5-1, including winning all three of his matches in the ITA Midwest Qualifying Draw to make the main draw, and White is a two-time All-State honoree at Division 4 for Sturgis.

The Titans will have a challenging schedule with the likes of Michigan State, Michigan, Toledo, Ball State and Western Michigan on the docket to get them ready for conference play.

The home slate will feature non-conference foes in Duquesne (Jan. 24), IPFW (Feb. 7), Wayne State (Feb. 9), and IUPUI (Aor. 19), while HL-rivals Cleveland State (Mar. 29), Youngstown State (Mar. 30), Valparaiso (Apr. 11) and UIC (Apr. 13) will all make the trip to the Motor City.