The men’s tennis team is set to begin competition in the 2013 USTA/ITA Atlantic Regional Championship on Thursday, October 17th at Virginia Tech.

Captain Kristian Marquart is the only Owl in the main singles draw. The junior received a bye in the round of 32 and will face the winner of Delaware’s Troy Beneck and Aaron Capitel from George Mason in the round 16.

In the qualifying singles draw, sophomores Santiago Canete and Nicolas Paulus earned a bye in the round of 32 and will take to the court in the round of 16. Canete face off against the winner of Penn State’s Ramy Labna vs. Daniel Gray of UMBC ‘s match. Paulus will go head to head to against either David Kohan from Penn State or Evan Ward of Morgan State.

Hicham Belkssir, Maros Januvka, Vineet Naran, Sam Rundle and Hernan Vasconez will all begin their competition in the round of 32. Belkssir will take to the court against Saint Joseph’s Dan Barrus. Januvka will play Mateo Cevallos of Longwood, while Naran will square off against Eliott Labatie from UMBC. Rundle will take on Chris Young of Penn State and Vasconez will face Richmond’s Noah Fenton in the opening round.

Four pairs of Temple Owls will represent the cherry and white in doubles action. In the opening round, Rundle and Naran will face the duo of Mehdi Mekaoui and Harry Walshe from Duquesne. Belkssir and Marquart will team up against Old Dominion’s Jonas Kuwet and Zvonimir Podvinski. The duo of Canete and Paulus will take on the tandem of Biyik Akinshemayisn and Labatie of UMBC. Januka and Vasconez will face another pair from UMBC, Kamal Patel and Kevin Hsieh.

The USTA/ITA Regional Championships has attracted some of the top men’s and women’s players in the country. Well over 8,000 student-athletes from NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA, Junior and Community Colleges compete at one of the 87 USTA/ITA Regional Championships held across the country.