Women's Tennis to Close Out 2011 at Home on Saturday

MACON, Ga. – Mercer University's men's tennis team controls its own destiny on Saturday morning when hosting I-75 rival Kennesaw State University, with the winner guaranteed a berth in the Atlantic Sun Conference post-season tournament. The match is slated to start at 10 a.m. at the Leroy Peddy Tennis Center on campus.

The women's match follows at 2 p.m.

The scenario for MU's men, as is often the case with tie-breaker criteria, gets somewhat complicated as four teams – MU, KSU, Lipscomb and Jacksonville – vie for the last two slots in the six-team A-Sun tournament on April 14-16 in DeLand, Fla.  Mercer is 4-5 in the A-Sun, while the other three teams are 3-6 heading into the final weekend. The Bears lost to Lipscomb and defeated Jacksonville head-to-head.

Jacksonville faces North Florida, ranked No. 75 in the nation.  Lipscomb travels down the block in Nashville to take on the A-Sun's last place team, Belmont.

All things considered, MU head coach Warren Woolfolk's mantra to his squad is simple heading into the match versus the Owls:  "Win and we're in."

"We can control our own destiny," Woolfolk said. "It's going to be a tight match because both teams have something to play for. This is by far the most important match we've played."

Should the Bears defeat Kennesaw, it would give them the No. 5 seed. Only twice in the team's history has it been seeded higher – No. 3 in 2006 and No. 4 in 1996 – since the A-Sun tournament utilized its current format (from 1994 and prior, the league used a divisional format).

"That would be a definite step in the right direction for our program," Woolfolk added.

Saturday will also be "Senior Day" for both Bears' teams. Four-year letterwinner Fernando Armendaris – who was also voted as Mercer's Homecoming King – and two-year letterwinner Evandro Rosindo will be playing their final home matches for the men's team.  On the women's side, the team's lone senior – Amalia Bugge – will close out her four-year stint n the Orange & Black versus KSU.

Mercer's women are mathematically eliminated from a chance of making the A-Sun tourney, but Woolfolk expects his team to battle the Owls' with great intensity. "In tennis, each point you play, each set you play and each match you play gives you a chance to improve as a player, and I expect our team to approach Saturday's match with that mindset," Woolfolk concluded.