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ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The St. Bonaventure men's tennis team will open the fall portion of its 2012-13 campaign this weekend at the three-day Navy Blue Invite from the U.S. Naval Academy.
The Bonnies will commence their three-match invite on Friday at 10 a.m. against Atlantic 10 foe Temple. On Saturday, SBU will play tournament host Navy in a 9 a.m. matchup before ending the weekend with a 9 a.m. Sunday meeting with Delaware.
Sunday's match will mark the first time ever that the Delaware Blue Hens and St. Bonaventure Bonnies have met, while Bona's and Temple will cross paths for the first time since last year's Navy Invite, when Luis Guevara (right), then a junior, had the Brown and White's only singles win.
While teams will play each other at the event, there will be no team scoring; however, individual matches will count toward a player's record. Individual champions will be awarded based upon the flight in which a player is in – for instance, the No. 1 singles player will be in the top singles flight.
St. Bona, led by head coach Mike Bates, returns his entire 2011-12 roster – including 2012 ITA Men's Scholar-Athletes Trevor Haskell, Elliot Fanshel and Oscar Yanez – and welcomes two newcomers: Celso de vera Rehberger and Gabriel Cardenas.
Seniors Yanez and Guevara lead the group of returning players as they paced the team last season with five singles wins each from the No. 1 and No. 2 positions, respectively. Junior Fanshel is also coming off five singles wins out of the No. 3 slot.
On the doubles side, Bona has two returning duos from last season's A-10 Championship First Round appearance: Yanez/Guevara and Fanshel/Ortiz. Both partnerships posted a team-best seven doubles victories.
Fans planning on attending the Navy Blue Invite cannot park on the Naval Academy's grounds unless the vehicle has a permanent Department of Defense sticker affixed to it; instead, they must park at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium or take a shuttle bus into the Academy. More information can be found here.
After this weekend's event in Annapolis, the Bonnies will return to action Sept. 28-30 when they host the SBU Fall Invite.
