WICHITA, Kan - - The Wichita State men's tennis team is one of eight teams set to take part in the Mountain Pacific Invite, March 3-4 in Albuquerque, N.M. 
 
SHOCKER SUMMARY
Wichita state is 3-5 to start the 2018 season under second-year head coach Danny Bryan. The Shockers have wins against Buffalo (5-2), which came in their season opener on the road and over UMKC (7-0), and Tulsa (4-3). Cornell (6-1), Utah (5-2), Auburn (4-3), Arkansas (4-3) and Middle Tennessee State (5-2) are among the Shocker losses. Senior co-captain Miroslav Herzan leads the charge for the Shockers, compling a 6-2 record in singles action, in the fourth, fifth and sixth flights. Elswhere, junior Haru Inoue is 3-4 in first and second flight, and sophomore Murkel Dellien is coming off a match-clincher against Jarod Hing of Tulsa, to push his record to 5-3 in both second and third flights. In doubles, the tandem of Dellien and Marius Frosa are off to a 5-2 start in the top flight, while Caligiana and Herzan are 4-4 in second and third flights along with Inoue and Stoica at 4-4.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Shockers defeated Tulsa on the road, facing their first American Athletic Conference opponent in their inaugural season with the conference. The Shockers had wins in the first and third flights, to take the doubles point. Andrea Caligiana recorded his second win of the season in the sixth spot, and junior Eddie Stoica was victorious in flight five, for his third win. With the match tied at three, it all came down to the third flight between Dellien and Hing. After rolling in the first set, Dellien fell in a second-set tiebreaker to force a third and deciding set. Dellien rolled to give WSU the win 4-3.
 
 FOR THE RECORD
The Shockers and Golden Hurricane met on the court for the 37th time in school history on Feb. 19 where WSU knocked off Tulsa (4-3) for the first time since Nov. 4, 1994, and the first in the last 14 tries. Besides former Missouri Valley opponents Drake (16-27), Illinois State (30-10), Southern Illinois (36-9), the Tulsa-WSU Series is the largest with 37 combined matches. The Shockers hold a 21-16 lead over the Golden Hurricane.

MOUNTAIN PACIFIC TOURNAMENT
Field: Pacific, New Mexico (host), San Francisco, Lamar, Brown, Hawaii, Grand Canyon and Wichita State. It will be a three-match tournament, with all teams playing for a place (1st-8th). The Linda Ester Tennis Facility and the McKinnon Family Tennis Center will be the facilities used during the tournament.

Last Season
The University of New Mexico and Pacific host the Mountain Pacific Tournament every other year. Last year, the Shockers collected three wins, over UT-Arlington, No. 39 Cal Poly and Fresno State, to claim the tournament championship in Stockton, Calif, home of Pacific
 
BRACKET
The Shockers grab the five seed for the tournament, with the seeding being determined by ITA Rankings. The will take on the University of San Francisco on Saturday, Mar. 3 at 9 a.m. MT.


 

ON SAN FRANCISCO
The Dons bring a 2-6 record to the tournament, with wins over George Washington (4-0) and New Mexico State (5-2). Arizona, UC Davis, USC, UCSB, Cal Poly and UC Irvine are among San Francisco's losses. Ryan Marker leads the Dons with a 2-1 record in the third flight. Johan Joenhagen and Paul Girard are 3-0 on the season in doubles action, coming in the first flight. Fifth-year head coach Pablo Pires De Almeida leads the Dons, who went 10-14 and 5-4 in the West Coast Conference last season.
 
ON NEW MEXICO
New Mexico sports a 6-4 record, with wins over UT-Rio Grande Valley, Nebraska-Omaha, Michigan State, Drake, UC Santa Barbara ,Pacific and losses to Northern Arizona, Santa Clara, Texas Tech and Utah. The Lobos are ranked No. 46 in the latest ITA/Oracle Team Rankings (Feb. 27). Ricky Hernandez-Tong leads the New Mexico and is ranked No. 103 in singles play. Ben Dunbar leads the Lobos, in his second-year as head coach.
 
OTHERS IN THE FIELD
No. 8 seed Hawaii enters the tournament with a 0-5 record, with four losses coming to ranked teams (Florida State twice, Texas Tech Twice). Brown comes in with a 10-2 record as the No. 2 seed, No. 6 seed Lamar is 1-6. Pacific sports a 2-8 record and Grand Canyon comes in 5-3, with doubles duo Mathieu Rajaonah and Lorenzo Fucile ranked No. 56.
 
SENIOR POWER
Senior Miroslav Herzan is off to a hot start in dual season. Herzan begins the season 6-2 in singles action. His two losses came by way of Pedro Alonso of Arkansas and Lucca Baptista of Tulsa. He's competed in the sixth, fifth and fourth flight.
 
CAPTAINS
Head coach Danny Bryan announced the captains for the 2018 season. The captains include Herzan and juniors Haru Inoue and Eddie Stoica.
 
NEW FACE ON THE COURT
Freshman Andrea Trapani joined the Shockers in January, and looks to record his first victory in a Shocker uniform after a 0-5 start to the spring season. Trapani hails from Palermo, Italy and had a 13.22 Universal Tennis Rating coming to Wichita State. He ranked as high as #232 in ITF Junior World Rankings, with over 30 combined singles and doubles wins.
 
FALL BALL
Frosa, from Romania, led the Shockers in the fall season. Frosa went 8-4 in the fall in singles action, including a run to the main draw of the ITA All-Americans, knocking off No. 83 Felix Corwin of Minnesota along the way. The junior was one win away from making the final four of the ITA Central Regional. Inoue, who ranked No. 58 in Fall Rankings, went 10-4 in singles competing in three Futures events. He advanced to the main draw in two of the three events. In doubles, junior Andrea Caligiana and Herzan went 5-2, including a semifinal berth at the ITA Central Regional. Stoica and Frosa went 3-1, including an upset over No. 25 Hammond/Cash of Oklahoma State.
 
UP NEXT:
The Shockers return home to Sheldon Coleman Tennis Complex for two matches in three days against Nebraska and New Mexico. The former is on Friday, Mar. 9 at 3 p.m. with the latter on Sunday, Mar. 11 at 12 p.m.