Pirates Open Fall Season At Liberty Invitational

GREENVILLE, N.C. – With five new faces on the roster, the ECU men's tennis team will open the fall season this weekend when the Pirates travel to the Liberty Invitational.

"We are looking forward to getting up and running with our fall schedule this weekend," said head coach Shawn Heinchon. "The event at Liberty will be great competition and a perfect way to get our guys some quality matches in a tournament setting. The more battle tested we can get in the fall, the more that will help us come spring time. We have five new guys this year and that makes the fall that much more important. The more experience they can get, the better they will handle everything come the spring. It should be fun."

After a 2018-19 season that saw the Pirates finish with a 14-7 record, ECU graduated Austin Allen, Vlad Anghel, Ronny Georgi and Will Bissett, a quartet that combined for 46 singles wins and 30 doubles wins last season. The Pirates do return Wisse Jonker, Simon Labbe, Diogo Marques and Javier Renones while adding four freshmen and a transfer to the roster for the 2019-20 season.

Marques and Labbe both had successful debut seasons for ECU and will open their sophomore campaigns this weekend at the Liberty Invitational. Marques had one of the top freshmen seasons in recent ECU history, going 19-11 in singles. The Setubal, Portugal native spent the entirety of the dual match season on the top two courts, going 7-5 on court one and 2-1 on court two. Labbe went just 6-9 in singles, but was a key contributor on the doubles court where he went a combined 12-7. Labbe formed a successful partnership with Renones, as the duo had a 6-1 record playing together.

Of the five newcomers, three will make their ECU debuts this weekend. Leading the way will be Southern Utah transfer Agustin Tamagnone. Tamagnone spent two seasons at Southern Utah and went a combined 26-16 in singles and 24-13 in doubles. Along with Tamagnone, Nelson Stafford and Federico Masetti will compete at Liberty. Stafford is a product of Baton Rouge, La., were he was a four-time regional champion and state runner-up. Masetti arrives in Greenville from Ferrera, Italy.

Play at the Liberty Invitational will get started on Friday afternoon and will run through Sunday.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Austin Allen

Vlad Anghel

Will Bissett

Ronny Georgi

Wisse Jonker

Simon Labbe

Diogo Marques

Federico Masetti

Javier Renones

Nelson Stafford

Agustin Tamagnone

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