After having a tournament-filled fall season, the University of San Francisco men's tennis team heads into spring ready to compete in its dual matches. Director of tennis Peter Bartlett mentioned one of the positives going into the spring is the team is full of returners and with high performances from the Dons in the fall and last season. They are poised to compete at a high level in the WCC.

"In the fall, individual performances stood out and now it's about coming together and making sure, as a group, everyone is ready to go," Bartlett said. "I do think there is high potential there so I think it is a little bit more wide open."

Head coach Pablo Pires de Almeida, who has been at the helm of the men's program for five years, felt the fall was one of the best seasons his teams have had so far. He noted that in every tournament the Dons participated in, every player was able to record a win against solid programs.

Almeida said one of the best tournaments his team played in was Regionals. Each Don found success in both singles and doubles over the course of Regionals play. Highlighting USF's performances were two doubles advancing to semifinals and Johan Joenhagen, who matched the modern history record at USF for furthest singles finish (semi-finals) set by none other than head coach Almeida in 2004.

"They all supported each other and showed a really tight bond," Almeida said. "That was the tournament where I'd say we did the best collectively."

USF finished last season with a record of 10-14 overall, 5-4 in WCC play. The Dons are scheduled to start off the spring campaign with a contest against in-state foe Stanford on Friday, Jan. 19 in Cardinal territory. This is the first time the Dons have started their spring season with a matchup against Cardinal and are looking for their first program win against the Palo Alto opponents. 

The Dons will be facing a few more Pac-12 teams before starting conference play including a match against Arizona (Jan. 26-27) and USC (Feb. 10). Even though these are competitive teams, Almeida has confidence that with the depth of his team, USF is going to see a lot of high-level wins that haven't been seen before.

"The team is very ready for the challenge and they are really looking forward to the season," Almeida said. "It's go-time and they are really looking forward to getting into these dual matches."

WCC play will begin for the Dons with three at-home contests, starting on Friday, Mar. 23 against Pacific. Following the Tigers will be Saint Mary's on Saturday, Mar. 24 and a non-conference matchup against Brown on Wednesday, Mar. 28. From then on, it will be all conference play for the Dons and they will end their dual matchup season with a contest against Loyola Marymount Saturday, April 21.

The Dons will end their regular season at the WCC Championships starting on Wednesday, Apr. 25 and will continue until Saturday, Apr. 28. Last season, the Dons weren't able to make it past San Diego and dropped the match 0-5 in the opening round. The last time the Dons advanced to the quarterfinals was 2015.

With a seasoned team, Almeida has high hopes to compete in the NCAA Tournament. 

"The team really wants to break some of the best results we've ever had," Almeida said. "We finished in the top-three before a good amount of times so our goal is to break that, win the conference and finish in the top-two of the NCAA Tournament. We are making a big push this year."

Click here for the complete schedule.

UP FIRST
The Cardinal matchup will begin Friday, Jan. 19 at 3 p.m. at Stanford. Stream it live at streamingtennis.com.