The St. Bonaventure men's tennis team looks to return to the win column when it faces a trio of Atlantic 10 opponents on the road starting Thursday at 4 p.m. against Fordham. After meeting the Rams, the Bonnies visit Philadelphia for matches against La Salle at 1 p.m. Friday and Saint Joseph's at 10 a.m. Saturday.
SBU is winless in its lone A-10 match this season, suffering a 5-2 loss at home to Duquesne on Feb. 22. The Bonnies (4-9) are also looking to recover from 7-0 losses to Binghamton and Yale this past weekend.
Fordham owns a 5-7 record, but the Rams are 4-1 at home. In conference play, Fordham is 1-3 with a victory over La Salle and losses to George Washington, Temple and Saint Joseph's.
Led by Srikar Alla's 14-5 record and Emilio Mora's 11-3 mark, the Rams singles players are 64-51 collectively. Fordham is 24-20 in doubles matches, led by Mora's and Mischa Koran's team-best 8-2 record.
La Salle is 7-3 overall and 3-0 at home, but the Explorers are winless in their only two spring matches – 6-1 losses to NJIT and St. Francis (Pa.). The Bonnies also lost to NJIT, 6-1, but they topped St. Francis, 5-2. St. Bonaventure scored a 6-1 victory over La Salle last season.
Saint Joseph's is 5-7 overall, 1-2 at home and 2-2 in A-10 matches. The Hawks defeated Fordham and Dayton and lost to Richmond and Duquesne in conference play.
SJU players are 46-53 in singles matches, led by Pierre Brondeau (8-4) and Andres Urrea (7-3). The Hawks are 19-25 in doubles action.
The Bonnies suffered a 5-2 loss to SJU last season, ending a three-match winning streak against the Hawks.
Junior Javier Ortiz (pictured) leads the Bonnies with a 10-11 singles mark, while seniors Oscar Yanez and Luis Guevara are second on the team with nine individual wins apiece. The pairing of Yanez and Guevara has recorded a team-best 12 doubles victories.
After this weekend, St. Bonaventure visits Niagara on Sunday, April 7 and hosts Xavier on Saturday, April 13, before participating in the Atlantic 10 Championships April 25-28 in Mason, Ohio.
