WICHITA, Kan. – Coming off a 4-0 week, the Wichita State men's tennis team heads west to take part in the San Diego Tennis Classic (March 22-24) scheduled to take place on the campus of San Diego and San Diego State.
 
The Shockers (10-7) will open against No. 50 Princeton at San Diego State on Friday at 9 a.m. PT/11 a.m. CT. WSU will then face either San Diego/Memphis on Saturday with a time TBD.
 
SAN DIEGO INVITE FIELD
The San Diego Invite is made up of eight teams, including San Diego and San Diego State. Five of the eight teams are in the ITA/Oracle Team Rankings. The Shockers have faced two teams in the field this season – Memphis and Drake.
 
Princeton (ITA, No. 50) – The Tigers come into the Invite with a 15-4 record, with notable wins over Penn State, Charlotte, Clemson, Rice, Wisconsin, and Yale. The Tigers are led by Karl Poling who sports a perfect 16-0 dual match record primarily in the third flight. Ryan Seggerman plays mostly in the top slot and holds an 9-4 record. Seggerman and Damian Rodriguez rank No. 26 in doubles with four ranked wins in the No. 1 slot.
 
It will be the first meeting on the court between to two programs.
 
Harvard (ITA, No. 38) - Harvard sports a 9-4 record in the dual season with notable wins over Penn State, Northwestern, Vanderbilt and Memphis. The Crimson are led by Steven Sun who is a perfect 12-0 in dual action, primarily in the fifth flight. Harris Walker holds a 10-3 record in flights two, three and four. In doubles, Andy Zhou and Logan Weber are 8-4 in the first flight and rank 33^rd nationally in doubles.
 
Harvard leads the all-time series, 4-1. The two met last on March 28, 1991 with Harvard winning a 7-0 decision over the Shockers. The last Shocker win was on March 4, 1980 when the Shockers won 7-2 in Corpus Christi, Texas.
 
Tulane (ITA, No. 49) – The Green Wave have had a tough schedule to start the year, facing eleven ranked opponents on the season. Notable, Tulane won ITA Kick-Off Weekend in Tallahassee, Fla. with wins over No. 18 Tennessee (4-2) and No. 19 Florida State (4-2). The Green Wave have also knocked off No. 46 Old Dominion (6-0) and most recently a 6-1 win over Pepperdine. Individually, Ewan Moore is 6-6 in the top slot with a No. 64 singles ranking, while Luis Erlenbusch is 7-9 in dual play in the second slot ranks No. 96.
 
Tulane leads 3-0 in the all-time series. The Green Wave won 6-1 in their last meeting on Jan. 25, 2004 in New Orleans.
 
San Diego (ITA, No. 36) – The Toreros are off to a blistering 11-3 start in 2019. San Diego has wins over Utah State, Ole Miss, Portland, UC Santa Barbara, San Francisco, UNC Wilmington, Oklahoma State, Saint Mary's, Washington, Gonzaga ad San Diego State. Gui Osorio leads the Toreros with a 10-3 record and a No. 67 Singles Ranking. August Holmgren is 7-4 primarily in the first flight. In doubles, Holmgren and Joel Gamerov rank No. 46.
 
WSU leads the all-time series with the Toreros, 3-2. The Shockers picked up a 5-2 win on March 15, 1998 in their last meeting.
 
San Diego State – SDSU sports a 5-5 record with wins over UC Irvine, UC San Diego, San Francisco, Portland and UC Davis. Sander Gjoels-Anderson is 6-3 while Jan Kirchhoff is 6-2 in singles play for the Aztecs. Gjoels Anderson and Rafael Gonzalez Almazan hold a doubles record of 5-5 in the first flight.
 
The Shockers and Aztecs have met just twice, with SDSU hold the upper-hand (2-0). March 24, 1989 was the last meeting between the programs.
 
Memphis – The Tigers are 9-7 on the season, with their last meeting coming at Wichita State on March 12 where the Shockers won a 4-3 thriller in Wichita. Memphis has notable wins over Old Dominion, Michigan State, Northwestern and Temple. David Stevenson and Oscar Cutting made the jump to No. 32 in this week's ITA Doubles Rankings where they hold a 7-5 record with wins over two ranked opponents. Patrick Sydow and Jan Pallares 10-2 in doubles, mainly in the second flight. Chris Patzanovsky sports an impressive 10-2 record in the top slot and Oscar Cutting is 10-2 in flights four through six.
 
WSU holds a 2-1 advantage all-time over the Tigers. The Shockers won a 4-3 thriller over then No. 50 Memphis on March 12 this season.
 
Drake- The Bulldogs are 14-9 overall with wins over Northern Illinois, Tennessee Tech, Purdue, Illinois State, Utah State, Indiana, UC Santa Barbara, Omaha, North Dakota, Omaha, Nebraska, Oral Roberts, Western Michigan, Michigan State and New Mexico. Vinny Gillespie ranks No. 69 in singles and sports a 14-7 record mainly in flight No. 1. Ranked No. 72, Tom Hands leads the team with 16 dual match wins. Gillespie and Barny Thorold are No. 68 in latest ITA/Oracle Doubles Rankings.
 
Drake holds a 28-17 lead over the Shockers in all-time meetings. The Shockers met with former Missouri Valley Conference rival earlier this season on March 1, knocking off the 43^rd-ranked Bulldogs 4-2 in Wichita.

LAST TIME OUT
The Shockers capped off a 4-0 week with wins over Charlotte (4-3) and UMKC (4-0) on March 17 in Wichita. After dropping the doubles point against Charlotte, the Shockers rallied to win four singles matches on courts one, two, five and six. In the nightcap, the Shockers rolled over UMKC inside Genesis Health Club. After clinching their first doubles point since March 1, the Shockers won on courts four, five and six.

CATCHING UP WITH THE SHOCKERS
The Shockers (10-7) have three top-50 wins under their belt - No. 43 Drake (4-2), No. 28 Dartmouth (4-2), and No. 50 Memphis (4-3).  WSU's other wins have come against Nebraska (4-3), Denver (5-2), UNC-Wilmington (4-0), Middle Tennessee State (4-3), Tennessee State (7-0), Charlotte (4-3) and UMKC (4-0). Five of their seven losses have come against top-25 opponents - No. 13 Oklahoma (4-0), No. 3 Mississippi State (4-0), No. 20 Tennessee (5-2), No. 15 TCU, (6-0), and No. 25 Minnesota (7-0).
 
RANKED SHOCKERS
The Shockers broke the top-40 for the first time since 1982-83 in March 5^th's ITA/Oracle Team Rankings poll, coming in at No. 39.
 
2019 Polls
Feb. 26 – No. 44
March 5- No. 39
March 19- No. 48
 
BIG WINS
WSU collected its first top-30 win since the 2012-13 season, when they knocked off No. 28 Dartmouth on Feb. 23 in Hanover, N.H. The win was the first over the Big Green since March 27, 1988. The Shockers followed with a 4-2 win over No. 43 Drake on March 1 (4-2), their first win over the Bulldogs since the 2015-16 season. On March 12, the Shockers rallied from a 3-1 deficit to knock off No. 50 Memphis (4-3) in Wichita.

STRONG SCHEDULE
Six opponents the Shockers have faced are in the top-50 of the ITA/Oracle Team Rankings (March 19). Mississippi State (8), TCU (10), Minnesota (18), Oklahoma (20), Tennessee (19), and Dartmouth (45).  

BY THE NUMBERS
Haru Inoue – 8-4 in dual play, and 5-1 in flight two. Has three wins over ranked opponents (No. 75 Scott Jones of Tennessee, No. 64 Tom Hands of Drake and No. 84 Luca Keist of Charlotte). His win over Hands clinched the match over Drake. Inoue is 5-6 in doubles with Dellien and Latinovic.
 
Murkel Dellien – the junior from Trinidad, Bolivia is 6-8 in dual play, mainly in the top slot.
Dellien clinched the match over No. 28 Dartmouth with straight set win over Dan Martin in flight two. Five of Dellien's losses are to ranked opponents. Dellien is 8-7 in doubles with three different partners. Him and Frosa are 2-0 and knocked off the 28^th-ranked duo from Charlotte in the top slot.
 
Marius Frosa - 7-6 in the third slot for WSU. The junior clinched the match at Middle Tennessee with an impressive come-from-behind win on Feb. 4. and capped it with a match-clinching win over Jeremy Taylor on March 12 against Memphis.  Frosa is 6-8 in doubles play.
Eddie Stoica – Stoica, one of four seniors, is 6-8 in dual play mainly in the fourth (4-4)  and fifth (2-3) positions. Stoica is 6-8 in doubles with three different teammates.
 
Stefan Latinovic – Latinovic, a 6-foot-6 freshman from Belgrade Serbia is 7-7 on the season in flights four and five. He has won six of his last seven matches and is 6-1 in the fifth flight after starting 0-6. Latinovic is 4-7 in doubles with Andrea Caligiana and Inoue.
 
Orel Ovil – The freshman from Petah Tikva, Israel has been hot as of late, winning seven of his last eight in the sixth flight and is 7-4 overall. Ovil broke into the doubles rotation on March 17 where he picked up a win with Stoica in the third flight over UMKC.
 
DELLIEN NETS PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS
Wichita State men's tennis student-athlete Murkel Dellien was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week for Feb. 17-23.
 
Dellien – the first Shocker to take home the Player of the Week honors this season – knocked off Dan Martin of Dartmouth last Saturday to clinch the 4-2 thrilling victory over No. 28 Dartmouth. Dellien won in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5 in the second flight for WSU. The win marks the first top-30 win for the Shockers since the 2012-13 season.

DELLIEN'S REMARKABLE FALL RUN
Junior Murkel Dellien compiled a 6-2 record in the fall, including wins over two ranked opponents (No. 55 Josh Goodger, Tulsa and No. 32 Ferran Calvo of Oklahoma).  A native of Trinidad, Bolivia, Dellien reached the semifinal of the ITA Central Regional for the first time since Shocker All-American Phil Cooper in 1995.