VALDOSTA, Ga. – The No. 6-ranked Valdosta State men's tennis team will host a pair of nationally ranked opponents this weekend at the VSU Tennis Complex.  The Blazers face No. 10 Lynn on Saturday at 10 a.m. and then will host top-ranked Barry on Sunday at 12 p.m.
 
Fans can access links to live stats and streaming of the matches at vstateblazers.com on the men's tennis schedule page. 
 
The Blazers (1-0) have not played a match since Feb. 7 in a 7-0 win over Georgia College to open the season.  VSU won all three doubles matches and No. 2 ranked junior Luca Mack won at the top spot in the singles lineup over Gabe Cizek, 6-1, 6-2 highlighting the sweep.  Sophomore Lamar Bartley won at No. 3 singles, 7-5, 6-4, as he is 19^th in the South Region rankings, while junior Christian Wedel won 6-2, 6-0 at No. 4 singles as he is 18^th in the region. 
 
Lynn is 4-1 on the year and will play West Florida in Valdosta on Friday, before facing VSU on Saturday and Auburn Montgomery on Sunday.  The Fighting Knights are 2-1 in Sunshine State Conference play with wins over Florida Southern, 4-2 and Palm Beach Atlantic, 6-1, while they dropped a 4-3 heartbreaker to No. 1 Barry.  Doubles duo of Diego Gonzalez and Gianmarco Amatiste are 18^th nationally.  The duo is 3-1 this season at the No. 2 doubles spot.   Amatiste is 4-0 this spring, going 2-0 at Nos. 3 and 4 each, while Ray Chavez is 3-0 this spring and Gabriele Felline, brother of Blazer senior Christian Felline, is 3-1 this spring.  
 
The Fighting Knights lead the series 5-4 dating back to Feb. 19, 2011.  VSU won the last meeting in the series 4-1 in Valdosta on Mar. 25, 2022.  VSU won the doubles point with wins at Nos. 1 and 3 to set the tone early and then Wedel gave VSU a 2-0 lead with a win at No. 4 over Amatiste.  Mack defeated Gonzalez at the top spot, 6-3, 6-3 for a 3-1 lead and Felline clinched the match at No. 5, 6-3, 6-2.  
 
Mack is 10-1 on the year in singles for the Blazers as he reached the championship match of the 2022 NCAA Division II ITA Championships this past October in Rome, Ga.  He dropped a heartbreaking three-set match to Columbus State's Santiago Perez, 6-3, 3-6, 3-6.  Mack finished the fall season 9-1 and dropped just three sets all fall.  Perez is the top ranked player in the ITA rankings, while Teodor Zlatar of Harding (Ark.) is third, followed by Alexander Leischner of Point Loma (Calif.) and Joaquin Benoit of North Georgia rounds out the top five.
 
Along with Mack, Barry's Alejandro Ibanez Gallego is 11^th, while Saint Leo's Tao Castillo is 18^th and Barry's Alejandro Palacios is 20^th among players ranked from the South Region.  In addition, Delta State's Emiliano Elararraraz is 22^nd, followed by West Florida's Facundo Bermejo (27^th), Embry-Riddle's Elias Walter (31^st) and Saint Leo's Vincent Thiel (37^th) round out players from the region in the top 40.  Mississippi College's Joe Jarvis is 41^st, followed by Barry's Alessandro Giuliato at 42^nd, Giuseppe Bonaiuti is 44^th, while West Florida's Sebastian Sotelo is 47^th in the top 50.  
 
In the South Region rankings, Mack is at the top spot in singles, followed by Ibanez Gallego and Palacios is fourth.  Felline of Lynn is 17^th, while Gonzalez is 20^th.  In doubles, Gonzalez/Amatiste are fourth in the region, while Mack/Bartley are ninth and Barry's duo of David and Bastien Rieme are tenth.  
 
Barry enters with a 5-1 record overall and a 3-0 mark in the SSC.  The lone loss came at the ITA Indoor Championships with a 4-0 loss to Indianapolis.  Barry battles Northwood (Mich.) on Mar. 4 in Orlando, Fla., before heading to Valdosta for Sunday's matchup.  This spring, Alessandro Giulato is 3-1 in singles and he and Adam Lynch are 3-1 in doubles.  
 
The Blazers' match versus Columbus State, scheduled for Tuesday, Mar. 7, has been postponed.  Check back with vstateblazers.com for further updates.  VSU hosts Tuskegee on Thursday, Mar. 9 at 2 p.m. at the VSU Tennis Courts, before heading to Pensacola, Fla., to open GSC play Mar. 10 against West Alabama.