ST. PETER, Minn. — Several members of the Saint Mary's University men's tennis team will be taking part in the USTA-ITA Midwest Region Championships and Midwest Open, hosted by Gustavus, beginning Friday and running through Sunday.

USTA-ITA Midwest Region Field:
Central (Iowa), Wartburg, Carthage, Coe, Grinnell, Luther, UW-Eau Claire, Bethany Lutheran, St. Olaf, St. Scholastica, Saint John's, Bethel, Carleton, Edgewood, Concordia (Wis.), Saint Mary's, Hamline, Carroll, UW-Whitewater, St. Thomas, Macalester, UW-La Crosse, St. Norbert, Concordia (Minn.), Gustavus

Tournament Draws:
USTA/ITA Singles | USTAITA Doubles | Midwest Open Singles | Midwest Open Doubles

USTA-ITA Midwest Region Sites:
The Swanson Indoor Tennis Center, located on the west edge of the Gustavus campus in St. Peter, Minn., will serve as headquarters for the USTA/ITA Midwest Region Championships, with matches taking place at Swanson and the adjacent Brown Outdoor Courts.

Tournament Format:
For the first three rounds of singles in both the USTA/ITA and Midwest Open, matches will be 2 out of 3 sets with a 10-point tiebreak for the third set.  On Saturday and Sunday, all singles matches in both tournaments will be full 2 out of 3 sets. For doubles, all matches will be 8-game pro-sets until the finals of both the USTA/ITA and the Midwest Open.  The finals of both doubles tournaments will be 2 out of 3 sets with a 10-point tiebreak for the third set.

USTA-ITA Midwest Region This And That:
More than 100 of the top singles and doubles players in the Midwest will take part in the tournament beginning with singles matches on Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. Jake Humphreys of UW-Whitewater enters the weekend as the No. 1 overall seed in the singles draw of the USTA/ITA Midwest Regional.  Challenging Humphreys and rounding out the top four seeds is Jack Michael of Carroll College as the No. 2, Riley Galbraith of Coe College as the No. 3, and Alex Boomgarden of Carthage as the No. 4.  Humphreys is the reigning USTA/ITA Midwest Regional singles champion after he defeated Michael 5-7, 6-0, 6-2 in the title match last year. In the doubles draw, UW-Whitewater's Jake Humphreys and Ben Shklyar are the top-seeded duo.  Gustavus's Motasem Al-Houni and Andres Saenz are the No. 2 seed, Coe's Riley Galbraith and Brady Anderson at the No. 3 seed, and Carleton's Andrew Hwang and Erik Johnson are the No. 4 seed.  In last season's doubles championships, Ben Shklyar and Byron Balkin of UW-Whitewater defeated Mya Smith-Dennis and Al-Houni of Gutavus 6-3, 6-3 to take the title. 

Cardinals at USTA-ITA Midwest Region — Their Last Appearance:
September 27-28, 2013: The Cardinals' Blake Olmscheid (Farmington, Minn.) kicked off play in the 2014 Midwest Open with a 6-4, 0-6, 10-8 victory over UW-Eau Claire's Luke Zweiner, and followed that up with a 6-0, 6-3 triumph over Jacob Kubler of Bethany Lutheran. Olmscheid's run, however, came to a screeching halt in the third round, falling 6-2, 7-5 | Recap

Cardinals Up Next:
The Cardinals kick off their 2015 spring season at noon on Jan. 31, when they host Carleton in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match at the Winona Tennis Center.

Scouting the Saint Mary's Cardinals:
2015 Roster | 2015 Schedule | 2014 Final Statistics
The Cardinals finished with an 11-2 record against nonconference opponents last season. Saint Mary's is now 24-4 in nonconference matches over the past two seasons and moved to 38-11 vs. non-MIAC foes over the past four years. … Saint Mary's compiled a pair of three-match winning streaks, while also opening the season with a season-high five-match win streak a year ago. … The Cardinals' season-opening five-match winning streak was the longest season-opening winning streak in coach Jeff Halberg's 16 years as Saint Mary's head coach. … Gavin Smith (White Bear Lake, Minn.) closed out his senior season as the team-leader in both singles (14) and doubles (14) wins. … Smith's 14 singles and 14 doubles wins are both career highs. … Collin Kaczorowski (Suamico, Wis.), who set a single-season school record with 20 singles victories during his freshman campaign in 2013, equaled Smith's 14 singles wins this season, while also finishing with 12 doubles wins. … As a team, the Cardinals finished 35-31 in doubles matches, while going 61-61 in singles play. … With their 9-0 win over Martin Luther on Feb. 1, the Cardinals have now won their last four season openers.