Jan. 13, 2012

CHICAGO - After competing at the River Forest Invite and USTA/ITA Midwest Regional, the UIC men's tennis team is ready to begin its regular season play. The Flames head to Lincoln Park on Saturday, where they face No. 68 DePaul at 2 p.m. (CT) at the Lakeshore Athletic Club, and then travel to Evanston, Ill., on Sunday to take on Northwestern at 7 p.m. (CT) at the Combe Tennis Courts.

Head coach Hans Neufeld is in his 11th season with the Flames, holding a 115-110 overall record and 54-31 in the Horizon League. Following a 2010-11 campaign where the squad went 8-14 overall and 4-3 in the Horizon League, the team is ready to start the season.

"Last year, we had a lot of freshmen in the line-up, so now that they're sophomores, we should be a little more competitive and ready to go," Neufeld said.

The squad returns eight student-athletes, including the 2011 Newcomer of the Year and all-league first team member Alexander Raa (Bergen, Norway/Tertnes VGS), and adds three to the roster.

Through fall competition, the Flames combined for a 17-12 singles record, while going 4-3 in doubles matches. Rahul Kamath (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove South) and James Li (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton Warrenville South) lead the team in singles victories, going 4-0 and 4-2, respectively. In doubles play, freshman Maurizio Feoli (San Jose, Costa Rica/Pan-American) and Kamath, along with the duo of Nate Kirk (Wichita, Kan./Wichita-Southeast) and Scott Shepardson (Rockford, Ill./Rockford Guilford), have tallied 2-0 records.

At Northwestern, the Flames go head-to-head with No. 97 ranked Spencer Wolf and are ready for the challenge.

"We should be fine," Neufeld said. "I'm really looking forward to the start of the season because Northwestern and DePaul are really tough, so it will give us a good gauge of where we are at and where we have to go."