******Matches Will Be Played at the Washburn Tennis Complex and Will be Moved  Indoors if Necessary******

First serve . . . 

•    The 36th ranked Washburn Ichabod men's tennis rides a three-match win streak into its first meeting with William Woods.

•        Washburn opened its home slate with 9-0 win over Bethany College on Feb. 24.

•  Alejandro Valarezo leads the Ichabods with a perfect 6-0 singles record and near perfect 5-1 doubles record with Matt Barlow and Blake Hunter.

•   Washburn is 3-0 in front of its home crowd at the Washburn Tennis Complex. Having yet to drop a singles or doubles match.

 Three's company . . . 

•    Alejandro Valarezo leads the Ichabods landing at No. 31 in NCAA Divison II singles and No. 2 in the Central region. The sophomore heads into the season with a 14-3 record including a perfect 6-0 at the No. 1 singles position.

•    The lone senior and team captain, Matt Barlow, is the second Ichabod to garner a regional singles ranking coming at No. 14 in the Central region after posting a 11-4 record this spring including a near perfect 5-1 at the No. 3 spot.

•  Blake Hunter is the third Ichabod to boast a regional ranking at No. 16 as well as landing at No. 4 in the regional doubles rankings paired with Valarezo.

 The Opp . . . 

•        Justin Stuckey is in his first year at the helm of the William Woods men's tennis team.

•    The Bethany men's tennis team is 2-1 on the season after wins over Lindenwood, Westminster, with its lone loss against Rockhurst. 

•  Bethany was tabbed 16rd in the Feb. 14 NAIA Coaches poll, jumping two spots after starting the season at No. 18 in the preseason edition. 

• The Owls have four players in the ITA Rankings. Oscar Barreiro comes in at No. 10 in singles followed by Christian Barbieri at No. 17.

•  In doubles Barbieri and Barreiro comes in at No. 13.

Tournament success. . .

•  The Ichabods closed out the 2016 calendar year with each player picking up at least one flight victory in tournament play.

•    Alejandro Valarezo ended 2016 with a spot in the ITA Central Regional singles final after a stellar victory over the defending champion in the semifinal.

 The Comeback kids . . . 

•  Five Ichabods have staged and successfully carried out comeback wins this season.

•  Chase Brill and Alejandro Valarezo are the most recent Ichabods to come back from an early deficit. In his latest match against Bethany the freshman Brill defeated Conrad Mascarenhas 6-7(6-8), 7-5, 10-6 to clinch the sweep for Washburn.

•  Valarezo picked up his fifth straight win with a thrilling 7-5, 4-6, 10-6 win over Juan Mateus.

 The young and the restless. . .

•    With one senior on both the men and women's tennis teams combined the Ichabods have the youngest roster in the MIAA conference.

 Coaching. . . 

•   Former Ichabod tennis player Lance Lysaught is in his third season at the helm of the Ichabodmen's tennis program. He is 32-39 as a men's collegiate head coach in his fifth season and 23-18 at Washburn.

•   Washburn added former Washburn men's tennis standout, David Price, as the assistant coach to both the men and women's teams during the offseason.

 Up next . . . 

•   Washburn will remain at home where the team will host Newman on March 4 before opening conference play against Northwest Missouri on March 7.