No. 27 Men’s Tennis Ends Regular Season Wednesday with SMU

NEW ORLEANS – The No. 27 Tulane men's tennis team (16-4) will look to put the finishing touches on an undefeated regular season at home when they host No. 36 SMU (11-9) on Wednesday, April 12, at 3 p.m. The matchup also marks Senior Day for both Sebastian Rey and Chi-Shan Jao, who will be honored before the contest. Reminder that matches are free to attend at the City Park Pepsi Tennis Center located at 5900 Marconi Drive.

WATCHING THE WAVE
Last weekend, the Green Wave defeated Tulsa 6-1 to move its conference record to 2-1. The Wave then capped its perfect weekend with a 4-1 victory against No. 38 Rice. Tulane has now won three straight and four of its last five.

Schmitz earned his third American Player of the Week honor on Tuesday after winning both his matches this past weekend, which included a win over then No. 26 Or Ram-Harel. Schmitz co-leads the team with 14 victories alongside freshman Ewan Moore. However, the honor of hottest player on the team belongs to Chi-Shan Jao, who has won 11 straight to improve to 12-1.

IN THE RANKINGS
In this week's updated Oracle/ITA team rankings, Tulane moved up just one spot yet again to No. 27. South Florida is the lone American Athletic Conference school ahead of Wave at No. 26.

In singles, Schmitz jumped six spots to achieve a new career high of No. 16 in the country, besting his previous mark of No. 18. In doubles, Jao and Sebastian Rey climbed 14 spots to No. 64. Jao is also ranked in doubles with Schmitz at No. 90.

DOUBLE-TAKE
The Olive and Blue are 9-10 in doubles this season. When Tulane has claimed the early 1-0 advantage, they are 9-0.

SWEET 16
Last year, the Wave made its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2005 and tied its highest win total (16) in the post-Katrina era. The 2017 squad, now sitting at 16-4, could eclipse that mark with a win on Wednesday.

HOME SWEET HOME
Tulane is currently undefeated at home with a 10-0 record with one more home match to play. In the post-Katrina era, only the 2015 squad went unblemished at home, going 10-0 at the City Park Pepsi Tennis Center.

A LOOK AT SMU
SMU enters with an 11-9 overall record and a No. 36 national ranking. The Mustangs are 1-3 against conference opposition, defeating UCF but dropping decisions to Memphis and twice to USF. In fact, SMU is coming off of a 4-2 loss to USF in Dallas and will play UNO on Tuesday in New Orleans before squaring off with the Green Wave on Wednesday.

The Mustangs boast two ranked singles players in No. 70 Ronald Slobodchikov and No. 93 Hunter Johnson. Johnson is also ranked in doubles alongside Yates Johnson at No. 24 with a 7-2 record together.

No. 27 Men’s Tennis Ends Regular Season Wednesday with SMU

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Players Mentioned

Chi-Shan Jao

Ewan Moore

Sebastian Rey

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