UConn men's tennis seeks to change losing ways

Coming off four consecutive losses, the UConn men’s tennis team (1-4) will look to turn things around as they go on the road to New Haven and Providence, R.I. over the weekend to take on the Sacred Heart and Brown.

UConn will kick things off against Sacred Heart at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center at Yale on Friday at 6 p.m. before making the trip to Rhode Island to face Brown at the Erickson Athletic Complex on Saturday at 5 p.m.

The Sacred Heart Pioneers are bringing their 3-5 record into the matchup Friday after suffering a loss last week at the hands of the Army Black Knights. The Brown Bears on the other hand, will try to surpass the .500 mark when they take on the Buffalo Bulls before facing the Huskies on a doubleheader Saturday.

UConn will get a second chance to thwart a familiar opponent after dropping last week’s contest to Quinnipiac.

“Sacred Heart is another big in-state rival of ours,” head coach Glenn Marshall said. “We always have close matches with them, and I fully expect this match to come down to the wire.”

As for taking on the Bears, the Huskies will have to find a way to overcome the experience on their opponents’ side.

“Our team is very young,” Marshall said. “We have four freshmen starters, one sophomore and one junior.” Meanwhile, the regular singles starters of Brown are composed of two sophomores, three juniors and one senior.

“Each match we play will help the boys see what it takes to win the close matches, and how to be prepared in the future,” Marshall said.

Junior Ryan Carr, sophomore Wayne Harrell and freshman Mark HoSang all have had good showings in recent singles matches. Carr and Harrell are also coming off back-to-back doubles victories as a duo. UConn will look to rely on the trio to put up similar performances to have success over the weekend.