CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State men's tennis team will open the 2024 spring campaign this weekend, hosting Binghamton on Friday, January 19 and traveling to Penn State on Sunday, January 21.

 

This weekend's matches will be the first of 24 scheduled matches for the Vikings this spring. Friday's contest against Binghamton will mark the first of 11 home matches for Cleveland State.

 

Cleveland State will once again be calling the Medical Mutual Tennis Pavilion home, owning a 54-16 overall record when playing at the MMTP. Last season, the Vikings posted a 10-1 record at home, and have gone 27-5 when playing at the MMTP over the last three years.

 

Cleveland State returns 10 letterwinners for the 2024 spring season, including the senior quartet of JuandeDios Abboud, Mikael Erler, Kade Mindry, and Austin Staiger. This group is joined by sophomores Devin Boyer, Cole Chappell, Carl Gedlitschka, Alan Matyjas, Ty Rothchild, and Andrew Zimcosky, while the freshmen trio of Lincoln Battle, Nico Jamison and Nikolai Romanov will be making their dual match debuts.

 

Sophomore Devin Boyer owns a team-best 11-3 singles record following the fall season, while JuandeDios Abboud and Carl Gedlistchka both have eight wins so far this year. In addition, Abboud and Gedlitschka have a team-best 8-2 doubles record so far this year, while they are tied for eighth on the CSU Doubles Wins List with 23 total wins as a tandem.

 

Earlier this month the Vikings were selected to finish first in the North Division of the Horizon League Preseason Poll, while also picking up a vote as the overall champion. This marked the 12th year that the Horizon League has released a preseason tennis poll, with Cleveland State being selected as a top-two team 11 out of the 12 years.

 

The Vikings will be under the direction of 22-year head coach Brian Etzkin. As the all-time winningest coach in program history, Etzkin enters the 2024 spring campaign with 310 career wins.