03- Georgia Southern

Coming off a semifinal appearance in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and armed with a strong returning core of players, the Troy men’s tennis team is poised for another deep run in the Sun Belt and beyond in 2021-22.

“We have a very experienced team with a pair of seniors who have been with us for five years, and that makes a big difference,” head coach Rolando Vargas said. “We have a lot of depth on our roster and with that a lot of competition at practice. We’re playing a challenging fall schedule to see how our lineup will shake out for the spring where we play against seven ranked opponents.”

The Trojans ended the 2021 season ranked eighth in the ITA Southern Regional Rankings, while Carlen Anton ranked 20th in the region in singles.

The Trojans were one of the top teams in the Sun Belt during the 2021 campaign, finishing with the best record in the conference at 20-4. Troy’s 20 wins marked the first time that the Trojans had reached that milestone since the 2015 season. Troy has improved each year under Vargas’ direction, as he has led the team to a 48-16 record, including an impressive come-from-behind victory over UTA in the 2021 Sun Belt quarterfinals.

Pelayo Antuna returns after collecting his second-career First Team All-Sun Belt Singles honor last year as he posted a 9-6 mark in singles and a 9-4 doubles record after battling back from an early-season injury. A mainstay on the top court for Troy throughout his career, Antuna has earned 15 wins on court one over the past two seasons.

Carles Anton, a native of Valencia, Spain, was named the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year last season after posting a 16-3 mark. Anton has compiled an impressive 35-6 overall singles record and a 30-4 record in dual matches in his two seasons with the Trojans.

In addition to the strong returning core, which also features Manual Bernard, Francisco Erramuspe, Vita Llinares, Nicolas Simkin, Christopher Tasker and Nicolas Rodriguez, Vargas added a pair of impact freshmen in Noah Martens and Maxime Hillhouse.

Simkin and Tasker enter the 2021-22 season after earning All-Sun Belt Second Team honors in doubles last year.

“We enter this season with the extra belief that we can win the Sun Belt after what we accomplished last year,” Vargas said. “Our goal is to win the conference and that is the reason we are playing such a difficult schedule both in the fall and spring. If our guys buy into our system of fighting until the end and working hard, the sky is the limit for this team.”