Men's Tennis Heads to the Bluegrass State for Pair of Weekend Matches

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For the first time in program history, the Belmont University men's tennis team will compete as a nationally-ranked squad. The 74th-ranked Bruins take their one-loss, 5-1 record to Louisville, Kentucky, this weekend for a pair of matches at Louisville and Bellarmine.
 
Belmont will play the 23rd-ranked Cardinals Saturday at 1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET in a top-75 matchup at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center, before taking on Bellarmine Sunday. First serve from the Eddie Weber Tennis Complex Sunday is slated for 11 a.m. CT/12 p.m. ET.
 
Saturday's match at nationally-ranked Louisville will be live streamed and live scoring will also be available.
 
After playing four of their first five matches of the season at home indoors at the Ensworth Tennis Center, the Bruins are in the midst of a strenuous four-match road stretch. Last Sunday, Belmont suffered its first setback of the season at nearby Southeastern Conference mainstay Vanderbilt. Junior Riccardo Trione provided the Bruins their lone point of the match at No. 5 singles where he defeated Macsen Sisam in three sets, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Trione is an unblemished 6-0 on the season and has gone 4-0 at No. 4 singles. In fact, he has won nine consecutive matches dating back to fall tournament play.
 
Louisville enters the weekend boasting an 8-2 record with its only two losses in 2023 coming against top-15 opponents. The Cardinals were defeated 4-1 at Georgia on Jan. 30 and were edged 4-3 by then second-ranked Kentucky at home on Feb. 10.
 
Coming off three-straight convincing wins over Michigan State (6-1), Tennessee State (7-0) and Indiana (4-0), Louisville has not played a match since last Friday, Feb. 17.
 
The Cardinals feature a trio of nationally-ranked singles players in senior Etienne Donnet (No. 24), sophomore Natan Rodrigues (No. 44) and graduate student Fabien Salle (No. 49). Louisville also has the 14th-ranked doubles duo of Rodrigues and Salle.
 
Belmont is making its second trip to Louisville since the start of the 2022-23 academic year as the Bruins played in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Ohio Valley Regional Championships this past October, which were hosted by the Cardinals at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center and the Knights at the Eddie Weber Tennis Complex. Both sophomore Ian Cruz and Trione earned singles wins against Louisville players during the tournament. Cruz defeated the Cardinals' David Mizrahi 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 and Trione topped Louisville's Will Mayew 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
 
Last April, Belmont was swept 7-0 by the 24th-ranked Cardinals on the road with Louisville snapping the Bruins' eight-match win streak.
 
Bellarmine begins the weekend 5-5 on the year and on a three-match winning streak. The Knights are a perfect 5-0 at home and are coming off wins over Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (6-1), Campbellsville University (5-2) and Indiana Tech (7-0) in Louisville. Despite its five dual match victories on the season, Bellarmine owns just two wins against NCAA Division I opponents – Southern Indiana (7-0) and IUPUI.
 
At the ITA Regional Championships this past fall, both graduate student Marko Ilic and junior Alfred Wallin earned main draw round of 64 victories over Knight players. Ilic defeated Bellarmine's Jack Batchelor 6-3, 6-2, while Wallin beat the Knights' Kyle Tang 6-4, 6-3.
 
Last March, Belmont swept Bellarmine 7-0 at the Belmont Tennis Complex.
 
Up Next
The Bruins close out their challenging four-match road stretch at Ole Miss on Monday, March 6.
 
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