Men's Tennis Opens 2016 MW Championships Against Fresno State Friday

Utah State's [University] No. 56-ranked men’s tennis team (21-7, 6-1 MW) enters the 2016 Mountain West Men’s Tennis Championships as the No. 1 seed and will face the eighth-seeded Fresno State Bulldogs Friday, April 29, at 4 p.m. (MT) at the Fertita Tennis Complex in Las Vegas, Nev. This is USU’s first time as a No. 1 seed in a conference tournament.

The Aggies took the regular season meeting between the two teams earlier this year, as USU took the doubles point before freshmen Jonas Maier, Luis Lopez and Romai Ugarte all won their singles matches in straight sets. The first-round matchup will also pit brother against brother as USU head coach Clancy Shields will face his brother, Fresno State head coach, Luke Shields.

Utah State is led by junior Jack Swindells and freshman Samuel Serrano, who own a team-leading 17 dual match wins. Ugarte is 16-6, while sophomore Jaime Barajas is 15-6 playing exclusively at the No. 1 spot in the lineup. Barajas also boasts a perfect 5-0 record against Mountain West competition this season. One of his two unfinished matches in league play came against Fresno State's Nikolas Papic. In doubles, the tandem of Swindells and Maier leads the way as the duo owns a 15-9 dual match record, including a win earlier this season against the Bulldogs. The pairing of Barajas and sophomore Andrew Nakajima is 6-2 with a 2-0 MW record.

The Bulldogs (9-16, 0-6) have lost seven of their last eight matches, with the lone win coming at home against UC Santa Cruz. Fresno State is led by Euan McIntosh, who has a 13-8 dual match singles record playing anywhere in the top three spots in the lineup. Papic is 11-8 also playing in the top three spots, while Youssef Hassan is 11-10 playing between the Nos. 2 and 5 spots in the lineup. In doubles, the Bulldogs are led by the No. 79-ranked tandem of McIntosh and Mantas Bugailiskis, who are 10-3 while playing exclusively at the top spot in the lineup. Fresno State has shuffled the rest of its doubles lineup, and the duo of Hassan and Papic have the next most wins with a 5-8 mark.

Live stats and live streams of all the matches will be available at TheMW.com, while links will be provided on UtahStateAggies.com.

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Additional Aggie sports news is available at the Athletics website.