VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State men's and women's tennis teams host Tuskegee on Thursday, Mar. 9 at 2 p.m. at the VSU Tennis Courts and then will travel to Pensacola, Fla., to open Gulf South Conference play with West Alabama on Friday, Mar. 10. 
 
Fans can access links to live stats and streaming of the Tuskegee matches and live stats of the West Alabama matches on the Blazer men's and women's tennis schedule pages.
 
The men's team learned it remained No. 6 in the latest ITA Top 25, released this week.  Indianapolis took over the top spot, while Saint Leo is second, followed by Barry, Cameron (Okla.) and Columbus State rounded out the top five.  VSU is sixth, followed by UT Tyler (Texas), West Alabama, Ouachita Baptist and Midwestern State (Texas) rounded out the top ten.  Lee is 14^th, while West Florida is 18^th.  Georgia College, who VSU opened the season defeating is 21^st, while Mississippi College is 32^nd.
 
Individually, junior Luca Mack is second in the singles ranking as he is 3-0 at the top spot in the lineup this spring.  Hie is 12-1 in singles this season after finishing as national runner-up last fall at the ITA NCAA Division II National Championship.  Columbus State's Santiago Perez, who beat Mack in three sets last fall, is the top-ranked player in Division II.  Blazer junior Rodrigo Carvalho is 3-0 in singles this season at the No. 2 spot, while VSU, as a team, is 13-4 in singles in three matches.
 
In doubles, juniors Pedro Cordeiro and Christian Wedel are 3-0 at the No. 3 spot, while Mack and Carvalho are 2-1 at the top spot.  VSU is 6-2 this season in doubles.  The Blazers are coming off a thrilling 4-3 victory over then-No. 1 Barry last Sunday and a 4-2 win over then-No. 10 Lynn last Saturday.  VSU lost the doubles point to Barry and then trailed 3-1 in the team scoring, before Wedel won in three sets at No. 4 and Mack won in three sets over No. 11 Alejandro Gallego at the top spot.  From there, senior Christian Felline split sets at No. 5 with Arnau Rodriguez and Felline bested his opponent 6-3 in the final set to earn the victory.  It marked the second-straight year VSU has defeated Barry.  Felline was down Love-40 leading 4-3 in the third set, before rattling off four-straight points for a 5-3 lead.  He then broke Rodriguez for the victory. 
 
The Tuskegee men's team enters with a 3-3 record on the year, while the women's team is 5-4. 
 
The West Alabama men's team enters with a 7-3 record and 4-1 in Gulf South Conference play.  The Tigers are coming off a 5-2 loss at West Florida on Tuesday.  UWA's Illari Vesanen is 52^nd in the ITA Singles rankings, while doubles tandem of Lucas Hammond and Marcel Hornung are No. 2 nationally and duo of ilia Dehodiuk and Vesanen are 37^th nationally.
 
On the women's side, the Blazers are 0-3, but have played three solid opponents, losing 5-2 to Georgia College and losses to then-No. 4 Nova Southeastern and No. 6 Lynn.  Freshman Kayla Greco is 1-1 in singles this spring, while junior Olivia Pezo is 1-2 at the No. 2 spot.  In doubles, freshman Evelyn Altmaier and sophomore Shaye Longwell are 1-1 at the No. 3 spot to lead the team.
 
The West Alabama women's team enters with a 12-0 record and a 6-0 mark in league play.  The Tigers are coming off a hard-fought 4-3 victory at West Florida on Tuesday. Haina Franco is 68^th in the ITA Women's Tennis singles rankings.  She is 11-1 in singles at the top spot in the lineup, while Yuri Takanishi and Emiri Takanishi are 10-1 in doubles to lead the team.  Heden Ly and Hardija Vidnere are 8-0 in doubles.
 
Following the matches this week, VSU returns home to host Montevallo on Mar. 16 at 12 p.m. at the VSU Tennis Complex and then back to Pensacola to face Delta State on Mar. 19.