FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (September 12, 2024) – The Northern Arizona Men's Tennis team is heading to Tucson to participate in the Wildcat Invitational, the tournament will start Friday, Sept. 13 through Sunday, Sept. 15.
NAU tennis will take on players from Arizona, GCU, Gonzaga, New Mexico, New Mexico State, San Diego State, and UNLV. Over the offseason, the Lumberjacks picked up new freshmen
Ivan Perisic,
Noa Tcherniack, Jacob Volesky, and
Kai Mills. NAU also landed junior transfer
Takumi Katsuda from Texas Permian Basin.
The Jacks return four players in
Semen Agynskyy,
Dani Torres, Pitor Galus, and
Jakub Prachar. Agynskyy who went 13-4, Torres who went 14-4, and Prachar whose record was 10-2, had winning records in singles last year. Along with Torres' winning record, he was unanimous All-Big Sky First Team in singles.
During the 2023-2024 season, NAU won the Big Sky regular season title last year after going 7-1 in conference play. They finished 17-7 overall and were able to compete in the ITA Kickoff Weekend for the first time in program history, where they played No. 3 Virginia and Penn. The Lumberjacks fell short in the conference championship last season after a loss to Sacramento State, as they look to go one step further this year to become Big Sky Champions.
Every player on the Lumberjacks roster, with the exception of Galus, will be playing in both the singles and doubles draw of the tournament. The eight NAU players will be spread across six singles brackets and three doubles brackets.
In singles, Agynskyy will start in his bracket with a bye. The rest of the NAU competitors have to play in the first round. The Fox Trot draw is the only draw where two potential NAU players can face one another in the finals, Katsuda and Tcherniack.
In doubles play, there will be four new doubles teams that were not seen last year, Torres and Prachar, Tcherniack and Agynskyy, Volesky and Katsuda, and Mills and Perisic. Volesky and Katsuda start in the blue draw with a bye.
The Wildcat Invitational is the first of eight tournaments NAU will be playing in this fall and the first of two they will be playing here in Arizona.
