Harding Men's Tennis
#39 Harding (4-0) at Missouri-St. Louis (1-1)
Location: St. Louis, Mo.
Time: 9 p.m.
Series: First Meeting
Coaches: Harding – Marco Ruiz (4-0, 1st season at Harding); Missouri-St. Louis – Rick Gyllenborg (19th season at UMSL)
· Harding meets Missouri-St. Louis on Monday in the first-ever meeting between the two teams in men's tennis.
· Harding enters the match ranked 39th in Division II in the ITA Rankings and is No. 4 in the ITA Central Region. Missouri-St. Louis plays in the Midwest Region but is not ranked as a team.
· Harding is coming off a 5-4 victory over Delta State on Feb. 14. The team's match with LeMoyne-Owen on Feb. 21 was postponed because LeMoyne-Owen had only two eligible players.
· Harding is 4-0 overall and 1-0 against NCAA Division II opponents. The Bisons are 3-0 in road matches this season.
· Harding's No. 1 singles player, Mathaus Spiering, leads the Bisons with a 9-1 singles record. He is a perfect 4-0 in dual matches and has won seven straight overall.
· Harding has a 45-15 singles record this season. The Bisons won two of three doubles matches against Delta State and improved to 19-8 in doubles matches this season.
· Harding has three singles players ranked in the top 20 in the Central Region. Jon Mark Rowden is ranked No. 10, Spiering is No. 18, and Caleb McReynolds is No. 19.
· Missouri-St. Louis is a member of the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Valley Conference and enters the match 2-1 overall.
· The Tritons are coming off a 5-4 victory over Bellarmine in a neutral site match played Sunday morning in Elsah, Ill. UMSL earned points at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles, and No. 1, No. 4, and No. 5 singles.
· Missouri-St. Louis is a combined 20-24 in singles action, and 7-13 in doubles play.
· Nils Mueggenburg, a junior from Hamburg, Germany, is the Tritons' top singles player. He is ranked No. 4 in singles in the Midwest Region. UMSL's top doubles team is made up of Gabriel Oliveria and Tim Gorter. The duo is ranked No. 8 in the Midwest Region.
