Men’s Tennis to Open Fall Season at Penn Invitational, Friday Through Sunday
9/14/2022 12:18:28 PM | Men's Tennis
The Liberty men’s tennis team will open its fall campaign at the Penn Invitational, Friday through Sunday.
The seven-team event will be held at the Hamlin Tennis Center in Philadelphia. Pa. Three of the seven teams in the event finished the spring 2022 campaign among the top-75 teams in the country in the ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings: No. 66 Liberty, host No. 37 Penn and No. 40 Princeton. Temple, William & Mary, Dartmouth and Drexel round out the four-team field.
The event will be a hidden dual format, allowing teams to compete in a fashion similar to a spring collegiate dual match.
Liberty’s first match of the fall will be on Friday against No. 40 Princeton. First serve is 10 a.m. On Saturday, the Flames will face Temple at 2 p.m. Liberty will close out the weekend against No. 37 Penn, Sunday at 10 a.m.
Event/Days/Location: Penn Invitational | Friday-Sunday | Hamlin Tennis Center | Philadelphia, Pa.
Participating Teams: Liberty, Penn, Princeton, Temple, William & Mary, Dartmouth, Drexel
Liberty Flames Players Participating: Omar El Kadi, Zion Heaven, Thando Longwe-Smit, Rafael Marques Da Silva, Beau Pelletier, Deji Thomas-Smith, Josh Wilson, Christiaan Worst
Schedule
Friday (10 a.m.): Liberty vs. Princeton
Saturday (2 p.m.): Liberty vs. Temple
Sunday (10 a.m.): Liberty at Penn
Tournament Breakdown
All eight Flames on the fall roster will compete at the Penn Invitational. The roster is laden with upperclassmen, featuring four seniors and four juniors.
Last fall, Josh Wilson paced the squad with 15 singles triumphs and a 15-5 overall mark. Four Liberty players won 10 or more singles matches a year ago in fall competition: Wilson (15), Goncalo Ferreira (13), Deji Thomas-Smith (11) and Zion Heaven (10). The Flames’ winningest doubles team last fall was Thomas-Smith and Worst with seven victories.
Liberty met both Penn and Princeton in spring dual match competition in 2019 in what was Derek Schwandt’s second season as head coach of the Flames. Liberty welcomed Penn to Lynchburg at the end of last fall for the Liberty Fall Hidden Dual (Nov. 5-7, 2021). The Flames and Temple Owls have never squared off in a dual match.
