CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Citadel men's tennis team will play five matches in the span of three days this weekend, including taking part in the USC Sumter Invitational on Friday, Feb. 1 and Saturday, Feb. 2.

The Bulldogs will face USC Sumter, Belmont Abbey and Benedict in the USC Sumter Invitational before traveling to Tennessee to take on Carson-Newman and 20^th-ranked Tennessee on Sunday, Feb. 3.

LAST TIME OUT
Last week, the Bulldogs dropped a pair of matches at Georgia Tech on Jan. 23. The Yellow Jackets claimed the first match 7-0, but senior Roy Hobson took a point from Tech in the second match, setting the score at 6-1.

In the day's second match, Georgia Tech claimed a clean sweep of the doubles competition to claim the point. At No. 1 doubles, Carlos Divar and Phillip Gresk bested Noah Nawabi and Phillip Quinn 6-3 in the closest matchup of the session. Cole Gromley and Andrew Li defeated Gavin Stewart and Willem van Zyl 6-0 at No. 2, and Zummy Bauer and Joseph Gandolfo defeated Jack Pyritz and Hobson 6-2 at No. 3.

In singles action, Hobson finished his day on a high note, defeating Li 6-4, 6-4 for his first dual win of the season.

Stewart took four games from Gandolfo in a 6-4, 6-0 loss at No. 4 singles and both Graham and Quinn claimed three games in their singles matchups. Graham fell 6-0, 6-3 to Brandon Freestone at No. 5 and Quinn dropped his No. 6 singles matchup 6-3, 6-0 to Bauer.

Pyritz and Nawabi rounded out the day at No. 2 and No. 3 singles. Pyritz fell 6-0, 6-1 to Divar and Nawabi fell 6-0, 6-0 to Gresk.

SCOUTING USC SUMTER
USC Sumter starts the 2019 season with seven freshmen and three sophomores on the roster. Nicklaus Neal and Leonardo Zancheta are the only two returners on the roster.

SCOUTING BELMONT ABBEY
Belmont Abbey returns 18 players from last year's roster, while adding 11. The returners are led by Zachary Blythe, George Barfoot, Jose Disotuar and Carlos Nolasco. Blythe posted a 16-7 record in 2018, including an 8-1 mark at No. 3 singles. Barfoot and Disotaur both went 12-8 overall. Barfoot split time at the top three singles position, including a 6-4 record at No. 2 and a 5-1 record at No. 3 singles. Disotaur went 6-4 at No. 4 and 5-1 at No. 5. Nolasco ended 2018 with a 10-12 record, including a 5-3 mark at No. 4 singles and a 4-4 mark at No. 5. This weekend marks the start of the 2019 campaign for the Crusaders.

SCOUTING BENEDICT
Benedict features a very experienced core of returners with one senior, three juniors and a sophomore. Senior Quentin Eloise led the way last season with a 13-6 overall record, including a perfect 11-0 mark in conference play and a 9-1 record at No. 2 singles. Juniors Taj Ballantyne, Armando Flores and Julius Mutetwa combined for 38 wins, including a 14-4 record by Ballantyne, a 14-5 mark by Mutetwa and a 10-7 record by Flores. Ballantyne went 8-4 at No. 3 singles, Flores registered an 8-3 record at No. 5 and Mutetwa went 8-1 at No. 4 singles. Sophomore Nikola Aleksic posted an 11-8 overall record last season, including a 5-4 mark at No. 1 singles and a 4-2 mark at No. 4. The tournament in Sumter will mark the official start of the season for the Tigers.

SCOUTING CARSON-NEWMAN
Carson-Newman returns four players from last year's squad, including seniors Jesus Bacete-Sanz and Marc Bantel, and juniors Gabriel Dabdab and Joseph Stiles. Bacet-Sanz went 4-12 last season, including a 3-8 mark at No. 5 singles, while Bantel went 7-9, including a 6-5 record at No. 2. Dabdab went 1-15 in 2018, all at No. 1 singles, and Stiles went 2-5, all at No. 6. Sunday's match will be the season opener for the Eagles.

SCOUTING NO. 20 TENNESSEE
The 20^th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers return six players from 2018, including senior Timo Stodder who finished the 2018 campaign ranked No. 16 by ITA. Stodder went 32-14, including a 17-9 mark at No. 1 singles. Behind Stodder and fellow senior Preston Touliatos, juniors Scott Jones and Luca Wiedenmann are joined by sophomores Andrew Rogers and Adam Walton. Jones went 23-9 last season, including a perfect 3-0 at No. 3 singles and 5-0 at No. 5. Walton went 25-15 overall, including 10-4 at No. 4, while Wiedenmann went 22-9, including 10-3 at No. 6 singles. Touliatos went 20-13 in 2018, including 8-5 at No. 2 singles, and Rogers went 14-8, including 3-1 at No. 5 and 3-0 at No. 6 singles. Tennessee is currently 3-1 on the year with two wins over Charlotte and a victory over Texas Tech. The Volunteers will also host Wichita State on Sunday before playing the Bulldogs.

UP NEXT
Following Sunday's doubleheader in Knoxville, the Bulldogs will return home for five days of practice before traveling to Florida for three matches against Eastern Florida State, Bethune-Cookman and Florida Tech.

For more information and score updates on The Citadel men's tennis team, please visit CitadelSports.com and follow @CitadelMten on Twitter and @CitadelSports on Twitter and Instagram.