Men's Tennis Picked Fifth in HCAC Preseason Poll

GREENWOOD, IND.  --  The Defiance College men's tennis team has been picked to finish fifth in the conference in the 2017 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference preseason coaches poll.

Defiance finished with 41 points for fifth place out of nine teams.   Rose-Hulman (Ind.) Institute of Technology was picked to win the conference with 78 points and six first-place votes.  Earlham (Ind.) College was second with 71 points and two first-place votes and Hanover (Ind.) College rounded out the top three with 61 points and one first-place vote.

The Yellow Jackets ended the 2015-16 season with an 8-11 overall record and were seventh in the HCAC with a 2-6 mark.  

First-year Head Coach Gonzalo Vivas will begin his career at DC with a veteran team this spring with no underclassmen and five senior players.  Defiance also return both All-Conference award winners from a season ago in senior James DeMeo (Oregon/Clay) and junior Adam Swisher (Bedford, Mich./Bedord).  DeMeo was tabbed All-HCAC last spring and Swisher garnered honorable mention accolades.

Defiance had three players named to the "Players to Watch List" which included DeMeo and Swisher.  Joining the duo was senior Tory Savage (Bryan).  Last season, DeMeo finished with an 11-8 record in singles play (all at No. 1 singles) and teamed up with Swisher to finish 11-7 at No. 1 doubles.  Swisher also finished with 11 victories in singles action and went 11-8 overall at the second singles spot.  Savage saw playing time at third singles all season and went 7-12, while posting a combined 10-9 doubles mark.

The Jackets will begin the spring portion of their schedule on Tuesday, Feb. 28 when they host Alma (Mich.) College in a non-conference dual match.  The match is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.