April 3, 2008

Milwaukee - The Marquette University men's tennis team will host DePaul Saturday at 4 p.m., opening a four-match home stretch prior to the BIG EAST Conference Championship.

DePaul (12-8) returns four lettermen from an 18-7 overall 2006-07 campaign, and welcome four freshmen. Led on the singles side by freshmen Bartosz Jozwiak (20-8 overall) and Ben Hartman (27-6), all members of the eight-man roster have seen singles action this season. Hartman is undefeated from the No. 6 singles spot, tallying eight wins from there on the year. Junior Jose Moncada (21-12 overall) has only one blemish at the No. 1 singles position.

The Blue Demons are coached by Matt Brothers, in his first season, who has close ties to MU. Brothers formerly competed as a student-athlete at Marquette after transferring from UW-Green Bay. While at MU, Brothers served as a team captain and was honored with the team's Senior Leadership Award, all while helping the Golden Eagles earn an ITA Regional Top 10 ranking.

Of five common foes that both MU and DePaul share, the two squads have matched each other evenly in both wins and losses, and exact scores against opponents: Illinois-Chicago (W 7-0), Georgetown (W 6-1), Connecticut (W 7-0), Buffalo (W 7-0), and most recently for each team, Pacific (L 4-3).

The Golden Eagles (11-6, 2-1 BIG EAST) will play their first match since a west coast trip to Pacific, San Francisco, and Santa Clara. MU beat Santa Clara 6-1, but fell to both Pacific and San Francisco. Dusan Medan leads the team on the singles side, boasting a 26-8 overall record (12-4 dual). Mark Rutherford and Stephen Shao follow closely with season records of 20-10 and 17-8, respectively. On the doubles side, Brett Binkley and Mark Rutherford have posted at 23-9 record on the season.