Nearly three full weeks since their first match of the 2020 season, the College of Staten Island Men's Tennis team returns to action this afternoon when they face the Spartans of St. Thomas Aquinas College at 4 PM.  The Dolphins come in with a record of 0-1 after their season-opening loss to Division I Wagner College on February 9^th and the Spartans enter today's match at 3-0 looking to remain unbeaten on the season.

CSI @ ST. THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE
Matchup: College of Staten Island (0-1) vs. St. Thomas Aquinas (3-0)
Where: Match Point Tennis Club  - Orangeburg, NY
All-Time Series:  First Meeting
Players to Watch (CSI):  In their 7-0 loss to Wagner College the duo of newcomers Marcos Diaz and Niklas Koehne scored the most points for CSI in any of the match's games when they put 3 on the board in their doubles match out of the #1 spot.  The Dolphins also debuted another pair of newcomers in doubles, Nikolozi Davlianidze and Mark Karpovas, and saw another two returners, Tao Lin and Ivi Selenica, form their third pairing.  Five of the six players also competed in singles with Diaz, Koehne and Karpovas each scoring two points across a pair of games against the Division I competition.  Look the Dolphins to build upon their performance in that defeat as they face a Division II opponent for the first time this season when they face the Spartans this afternoon.
Players to Watch (STAC):  The Spartans return last year's singles wins leader in Marcel Volz who finished the 2018-2019 season with a record of 16-4 in singles play and 14-3 out of the #1 position.  Enej Hasicevic is another key returner who contributed 12 singles wins last season with the majority of those coming from the #5 position.  No other returning Spartan eclipsed the 10-win mark in singles play last year, and of their two double-digit game winners only Hasicevic competed in doubles play last year.  Much like the Dolphins, the Spartans have brought on a lot of new players this season, and with limited statistical information on those players available, the Dolphins will be faced with an even greater lack of familiarity with their first-time opponent and future conference rival in today's match.
News & Notes:  Today's match marks the first-ever meeting between the two programs in Men's Tennis, but the two sides will share a conference moving forward as the Dolphins assume full-time membership in the East Coast Conference next season.  Today's match not only marks the first meeting between the Dolphins and Spartans, but will also be CSI's debut against a Division II opponent as a Division II program.  Their first match of the season played against Wagner College, a Division I school, took place one day shy of three full weeks ago giving the Dolphins plenty of time to prepare for today's meeting with St. Thomas Aquinas as they look to hand the Spartans their first loss of the season.  Last year, the Spartans finished the season with a record of 14-6 that included a 4-1 mark in the ECC.  Their only defeat came against Queens College, a team the Dolphins have faced eight times before during a 10-year period from 1978 through 1987.
What's Next?: In their next game, the Dolphins will be in search of their first win in program history against Yeshiva University when they face the Maccabees on Sunday, March 8^th at 2 PM.