Elon Men's Tennis Hosts Georgia Southern, Old Dominion at Home This Weekend

Elon's men's tennis program returns to the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center this weekend for back-to-back home matches: Georgia Southern on Friday, March 27 at 10 a.m., and No. 56 Old Dominion on Sunday, March 29 at noon. Admission is free for both contests.

Georgia Southern arrives with a 7-6 record, having won consecutive matches against James Madison and Georgia State. The Eagles are 2-3 in five road matches this season, with wins at Mercer and North Florida. Elon holds a 9-5 advantage in the all-time head-to-head against Georgia Southern, though the former Southern Conference rivals have not met since 2015. Georgia Southern has won two of the last three meetings, including the most recent on March 7, 2015. The Phoenix is 4-4 against the Eagles in home matches, but Georgia Southern has won each of their last two trips to Elon.

Sunday's matchup against Old Dominion carries additional weight. Head coach Dominik Mueller is in his 10th season leading the Monarchs. Old Dominion has been climbing the national rankings steadily, and the No. 56 designation cited by Elon Athletics reflects a program that Saint Joseph's described as "a perennial NCAA tournament team" when the Monarchs visited Philadelphia in March.

Sophomore Rafael Ymer leads Elon with 16 victories across doubles and singles, holding a combined record of 16-5. Each of Ymer's last three singles wins have come in third sets, and his three final-set victories lead the Phoenix, who is 3-1 in decisive frames on the season. Ymer captured his second career CAA Player of the Week honor on Jan. 27.

Elon most recently picked up a road CAA win over William & Mary, 6-1, with Veljko Krstic and Nikola Parichkov clinching the doubles point with a decisive tiebreak victory, after which the Phoenix came through several tight singles decisions, winning a trio of matches in third sets. That victory was the fourth of the season for the Krstic and Parichkov doubles pairing, tying them with Ymer and Jack Curtis for the most among Elon doubles teams.

Senior Veljko Krstic made a historic run at ITA Carolina Regionals in October, placing third in the main singles draw and becoming the first Elon player to reach the final four in singles at Regionals since Cameron Silverman in 2013. Krstic is joined in the lineup by seniors Oskar Antinheimo, who carries 68 combined dual victories in four years with the Phoenix and has earned All-CAA Second Team recognition in both singles and doubles during his Elon career.

Elon has appeared in four consecutive CAA championship matches, with head coach Maciek Sykut in his second year at the helm of the program. The Phoenix and UNCW have met in each of the last four conference title matches, with UNCW winning all four, though Elon is 7-0 in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds over that same stretch.

Both matches at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center will offer live statistics through StatBroadcast.