SEASON PREVIEW

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. -- The St. Bonaventure men's tennis team will begin its 2016 fall season at the Army Invitational beginning on Friday and spanning through Sunday.

The players competing will be scored individually, and each player will be assigned a flight. The flight champions will be decided in Sunday's single-elimination style action, with seedings determined by the competition on Friday and Saturday.

Also competing in the Army Invitational are Army West Point, Binghamton, Air Force, Stony Brook, Fairfield, Boston College and NJIT.

Head coach Michael Bates welcomes four new freshmen to the men's team this year: Guillermo Garcia, Lukas Linden Malmberg, Indra Patwardhan and John Rutkowski. Bates said he believes the new players will contribute out of the gate.

"We've got four new guys coming that I think can help us out right away," Bates said. "We return four players from last year, three starters, so I think that's going to give us a little bit of depth and a little bit of continuity."

The four returns include sophomore Mitchell Blake, juniors Victor Blanco and Hector Martinez, and senior Hristo Hristov. Blanco was the team's top performer last season, finishing with a 12 victories and earning All-Conference second team honors.

 "I think Victor Blanco and Hector Martinez can help us on the men's side for sure," Bates said. "I think we need all our players to step up and contribute right away."

This year's roster features a mixture of cultures, with only two players (Blake and Rutkowski) hailing from the United States. Blanco hails from the Dominican Republic, Martinez comes from Mexico and Hristov is originally from Bulgaria. The new faces on the team come from just as wide of a range, with Garcia being from Spain, Malmberg coming from Sweden and Patwardhan traveling all the way from India to play for the Brown and White.

After the Army Invitational, the team will compete in the Navy Invitational the following weekend, starting play Friday, Sept. 23.