The men's tennis team will compete in the ITA Southern Regional Championships this weekend.
The team will travel to Tuscaloosa to compete against the University of Alabama.
Four players from the men's team will be attending the tournament.
Junior Alex Stamchev, sophomore Tim Hewitt, sophomore Michael Wardell and sophomore Davis Taylor will each be competing in singles.
Stamchev will partner with Hewitt, and Wardell will partner with Taylor to compete in the doubles matches.
According to coach Eric Shore, more players were expected to attend, but several are injured and unable to compete this weekend.
Shore said the weekend may be a challenge compared to last year's tournament.
"It'll be tough to beat last year," Shore said. "Last year, Tim Puetz won the tournament in singles, and he and Stamchev won the doubles. We are going to need a couple guys to step up."
Puetz is unable to compete because of an injury.
As of last fall, Stamchev stood 6-5 in singles and 11-2 in doubles with partner Tim Puetz, senior.
This season, he was awarded week 12 on the SEC Honors list.
Playing in his first season, Hewitt recently won the doubles at the HEB Baylor Invitational with sophomore partner Lucas Lopasso.
Sophomore Michael Wardell has a 4-5 record in singles play and 2-4 doubles record with partner Nick Maurillo.
He competed at last year's ITA Southern Regional and took away two wins.
Taylor's 2009 fall season left him with a 1-7 record in singles and a 1-4 record in doubles with partner Alex Jorne.
The four will be facing several SEC rivals.
"Ole Miss is a very strong team," Shore said. "LSU, very strong team, and of course Alabama. Those are the SEC teams that will be there."
Shore said Ole Miss in particular is a team to look out for because it is currently the top-ranked team in the SEC.
Shore said the team has been preparing for several weeks to take on the other competitors.
"We just had a hard week of practice last week," he said. "We continued to work this week, and we leave on Thursday," he said.
Shore said after this weekend's tournament, the team will focus on improving its rankings for the spring.
"Just trying to get prepared for the spring, and, like I said, get some guys to step up," Shore said. "Our long term goal is to make the Sweet 16 in the spring."
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