Men’s Tennis To Face Delaware and Xavier Trying To Keep Streak Alive

PHILADELPHIA – The Temple men's tennis team (11-2) will host both the University of Delaware Blue Hens (10-1) and the Xavier Musketeers (9-4) this week as they look to continue building off their success and keep the eleven-game win streak alive. The Blue Hens will visit the Cherry Hill Racquet Club on Wednesday, March 15 at 10:00 a.m. while Xavier will visit Penn's Hecht Tennis Center on Saturday, March 18 at 4:00 p.m.

THE OWLS:

Temple is coming off a win over the Marist Red Foxes by a final score of 7-0 on Friday, March 10. It marked their eleventh win in a row. Earlier in the week they defeated the defending NEC Champion FDU Knights in a close match ending with a 4-3 final.
Against Marist on Friday, Temple's Leo Raquin and Thibault Frumholz got the start from the first position of singles play where they picked up their tenth doubles victory on the season. Marin Delmas and Greg Barety started in the second position for the first time this season picking up the 6-2 victory.
Leo Raquin is knocking on the doorstep of his tenth singles win of the spring. He currently has a 9-2 record with 10 of his 11 appearances coming in the second position.

SCOUTING DELAWARE:

The Blue Hens are 10-1 and have won nine straight matches. Their most recent win came against CAA opponent Hofstra on Saturday, March 11. UD won the match 6-1 after the Pride were able to score one point behind senior Ostap Kovalenko in the first position of singles play.
Delaware's only loss came against now-No. 60 Penn State in State College, PA during the last week of January. The final score was 6-1 in favor of the Nittany Lions, but UD has not lost a match since.
James Wilkinson has led UD for the past four seasons before entering his graduate year with the Blue Hens. Last season, he led the team in individual wins with a 24-11 record. He and doubles partner Pierce Gilheany also led the team in doubles with a 13-6 record all from the first position.
Wednesday will mark the 32^nd matchup between the Temple and Delaware men's tennis teams. UD leads the series with 16 wins over Temple's 15.

SCOUTING XAVIER:

Xavier has a 9-4 record on the spring thus far most recently winning 4-3 over the Tennessee State Tigers on Sunday, March 12. This marked the second-straight win for the Musketeers after defeating Southern Indiana on Saturday, March 4 by a final score of 4-0.
Before facing Temple at the Hecht Tennis Center on Saturday, Xavier will play Big East opponent Villanova on Friday, March 17. So far this season, Xavier is 0-1 in conference play losing to Creighton on Saturday, March 4 by a final of 4-3.
So far this season, Marco Pennelli leads Xavier in singles' wins with a 10-2 record. Eight of his twelve matches have come in the fifth position where he has a 6-2 record, and he is 8-1 in his last nine matchups.
Saturday will mark the 10^th matchup against Xavier and Temple. The last time they played was February 15, 2014, with Xavier winning 6-1. Xavier also leads the record between schools with eight wins to Temple's one.

Be sure to follow the Temple Men's tennis team all season long by following @TempleMTennis on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook!