ORLANDO – The Wichita State men's tennis team begins play in the American Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Championship on Friday, April 19 at the USTA National Campus.

MATCH INFORMATION
No. 5 Wichita State vs. No. 4 Tulsa
Friday, April 19– 11 a.m. CT
USTA National Campus – College Center courts 1-6
 
Tournament Central
 
SHOCKERS AGAINST THE FIELD
ECU – Never met
Memphis 2-2
SMU 2-9
Temple -Never Met
Tulane 0-3
UCF – Never met
UConn – Never met
USF – 0-1
Tulsa – 21-16
 
ON TULSA
The Golden Hurricane finished the regular season with a 14-11 overall record, and 2-3 against conference foes. They have wins over Bryant, Mercer, No. 14 TCU, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (twice), Omaha, Abilene Christian, Oral Roberts, Cornell, No. 23 Oklahoma State, Drake, UTSA, Memphis and SMU.
 
Kody Pearson leads the Golden Hurricane with a team best 16-7 dual match record, in flights two through four. Majed Kilani, who has seven wins over ranked opponents, is 12-9 mainly in the top slot. Stefan Hampe holds an 8-3 record in the fifth flight and 13-7 overall.
 
Pearson and Daniel Siddall lead Tulsa in doubles play with a 9-5 record in flights two and three. Jarod Hing and Boriss Kamden sport a 7-4 record in the No. 1 spot.
 
The Shockers lead the all-time series with Tulsa, 21-16. WSU came out a 4-3 winner in the pairs last meeting on Feb. 19, 2018 in Tulsa.

LAST TIME OUT
The Shockers ended the regular season on a five-match win streak, including wins against SMU and UT-Arlington to close out the season. WSU knocked off SMU 4-0 in a hard-fought match in Dallas, and followed with a dominating 4-1 win over UT-Arlington in Arlington.

CATCHING UP WITH THE SHOCKERS
The Shockers (13-9) 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), UMKC (4-0), Drake (4-1 in San Diego), Creighton (6-1), UTSA (7-0), SMU (4-0) and UT-Arlington (4-1).   Five of their nine 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).
 
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Junior duo Murkel Dellien and Marius Frosa jumped into the ITA/Oracle Doubles Rankings on April 2, and currently rank No. 25 in the latest polls. The pair hold a perfect 8-0 record in the top slot, with wins over two top-30 foes. Dellien and Frosa knocked off No. 26 Keist/Christoforou on March 17 and followed with a 6-4 win over Stevenson/Cutting of Memphis, who ranked No. 30 at the time. The ranking is the highest by a Shocker duo since the 2015-16 season.
 
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. WSU has stayed steady in the weekly rankings since late February.
 
2019 Polls
Feb. 26 – No. 44
March 5- No. 39
March 19- No. 48
March 26 – No. 50
 
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 in Wichita (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 (April 16) -  Mississippi State (6), TCU (7), Minnesota (37), Oklahoma (25), Tennessee (13), and Dartmouth (40).  
 
BY THE NUMBERS
Haru Inoue – 11-5 in dual play, and 7-1 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 9-9 in doubles with Dellien, Latinovic and Stoica on the season.
 
Murkel Dellien – the junior from Trinidad, Bolivia is 11-9 in dual play, and winner of five-straight matches. Dellien clinched the match over No. 28 Dartmouth with straight set win over Dan Martin in flight two. Dellien knocked off No. 72 Tom Hands of Drake on March 24 in San Diego. Five of Dellien's losses are to ranked opponents. Dellien is 14-7 in doubles with three different partners. Him and Frosa are 8-0 on the season in the top spot.
 
Marius Frosa - 11-9 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 12-8 in doubles play (8-0 with Dellien)

Eddie Stoica – Stoica, one of four Shocker seniors, is 9-10 in dual play mainly in the fourth (7-6) and fifth (2-3) positions. Stoica is 7-10 in doubles with four different teammates.
 
Stefan Latinovic – Latinovic, a 6-foot-6 freshman from Belgrade Serbia is 10-8 on the season in flights four and five. He has won seven of his last eight matches and is 8-2 in the fifth flight after starting 0-6 (flight four). Latinovic is 6-9 in doubles with Andrea Caligiana, Inoue and Ovil.
 
Orel Ovil – The freshman from Petah Tikva, Israel has been on a tear as of late, winning seven of his last eight in the sixth flight and is 11-5 overall. Ovil broke into the doubles rotation on March 17 where he picked up a win with Stoica in the third flight over UMKC and is 2-4 on the season with three different teammates.
 
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.