ELON, N.C. – Elon University men's tennis looks to build off its win against James Madison when it returns to the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon, March 10, in a 2 p.m. matchup against CAA foe William & Mary.
 
THE SERIES
Elon trails William & Mary 5-2 in the series to date. Last season, the Tribe earned a 4-3 win at home on Jan. 26, 2018. The two teams split two meetings in 2017, as the Phoenix won during the regular season at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center, but fell in the CAA Semifinals at home to finish the season. 

SCOUTING WILLIAM & MARY
William & Mary is coming off a narrow 5-2 setback at Virginia Tech on Monday. The contest came down to a quartet of three-set matches, and the Hokies won all four. For their efforts against Virginia Tech, Chen Ruo and Brenden Volk were named the CAA Doubles Team of the Week. It was the second-straight weekly honor for the Tribe after Tristan Bautil and Oren Vasser were honored in doubles as well on Feb. 27. Half of the Tribe's losses this season have come to teams currently in the national top 50, including No. 4 Virginia, No. 9 Florida, No. 23 Penn, No. 36 Penn State and No. 46 Louisville. Half the Tribe's 10 matches have also come against major conference opponents. Sebastian Quiros leads the Tribe with a 14-11 singles record and has a team-best three dual-match singles triumphs.

ABOUT ELON
Elon has an 9-3 mark this season, which includes a 5-0 mark at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center. The Phoenix swept James Madison 7-0 in its last match on Thursday at home. Elon started the 2019 season with a 6-1 record, which included a six-match winning streak from Jan. 18 until Feb. 10. The winning streak included the program's first win over an ACC program since 2014 after a 5-2 victory at Clemson and a 4-3 victory over Rice. Elon has tabbed three CAA Player of the Week honorees in the opening two months of the season in Felipe Sarrasague and Felipe Osses-Konig. This season, Elon returns the 2018 CAA Player of the Year and three-time First Team All-CAA honoree Sarrasague, as well as Second Team All-CAA honoree Mario Paccini. The Phoenix, which finished 16-8 last season, returns an experienced squad that includes five upperclassmen, led by seniors Sarrasague, Paccini, Osses-Konig and Taylor Foote. Junior Jacob Bicknell rounds out Elon's five upperclassmen. Kyle Frankel and Camilo Ponce are Elon's lone underclassmen heading into the 2019 season.

SARRASAGUE AND OSSES-KONIG EARN CAA WEEKLY HONORS
Seniors Felipe Osses-Konig and Felipe Sarrasague have each earned CAA Player of the Week honors this season. Osses-Konig claimed the honor on Wednesday, Jan. 30, for his 4-0 singles record during the opening month of the season. Sarrasague has now earned the honor twice this season with each coming on Feb. 13 and Feb. 27.

THE SARRASAGUE SPECIAL
Felipe Sarrasague was named the 2018 CAA Men's Tennis Player of the Year in 2018,  becoming the fourth player in Elon's Division I era – all of which have come in the last six seasons – to earn conference Player of the Year. A 20-match winner in 2017-18, Sarrasague posted a combined record of 20-11 since the start of the fall campaign. Fourteen of those victories came during the spring season with 12 of them coming at the No. 1 spot. During the year, Sarrasague put together an eight-match winning streak and while he lost eight matches this spring, three of the defeats came to nationally-ranked opponents. In doubles action, Sarrasague contributed 15 victories.

SINGLES SUCCESS
Elon is currently 45-17 overall in dual match singles action in 2019 and its continuing where it left off last season. During the 2018 season, Elon went 84-51 during dual-match singles action, winning 62.2 percent of its contests. Felipe Sarrasague led the team with 14 wins, while Kyle Frankel tallied 13. Sarrasague duplicated his freshman and sophomore success, taking 11 victories at the No. 1 spot while Fränkel won 12 matches at No. 3 and was 8-2 in his last 10 individual matches. Mario Paccini also had great success, winning 12 matches on the year with 10 of those wins coming at No. 2 and the other two at No. 1 singles. He, Camilo Ponce and Felipe Osses-Konig were tied for third on the team with 12 individual wins.

FRESH FACES
Elon University head men's tennis coach Michael Leonard announced the signing of Dino Bonetta (Rijeka, Croatia) and Maxwell Zucker (Dallas, Texas) for the 2019 season on Saturday, Jan. 5. Bonetta joins the Phoenix program as a transfer from the University of Detroit Mercy. Zucker arrives from Parish Episcopal High School in Dallas, Texas.

UP NEXT
The Phoenix begins a two-match road swing on Wednesday, March 13, facing the Davidson Wildcats at 3 p.m. at the Davidson Tennis Courts.