BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh tennis teams will be back on the courts this weekend as the Mountain Hawks will be hosting the Lehigh Tennis Invitational on the Ulrich Varsity Courts as well as inside the Lewis Tennis Center. The Mountain Hawks will welcome five men’s and four women’s teams to the event, which will feature round-robin play with each team facing every other team in both singles and doubles competition.
“This weekend is really about taking our new players for a test drive,” said Lehigh head coach Dave Shook. “Throughout the course of the weekend they will be playing three singles matches and three doubles, with the objective of gaining more match experience to prepare for the spring season.”
The teams joining Lehigh on the men’s side are Fairleigh Dickinson, Monmouth, NJIT, Mount St. Mary’s and Hamilton College. Fairleigh Dickinson, Marist, Middlebury and NJIT will join the Mountain Hawks on the women’s side. Shook anticipates using all 17 available indoor and outdoor courts throughout the course of the weekend.
Both Lehigh teams have been off for a month since taking part in their respective ECAC Championships. The Lehigh women claimed their second team title in three years in Newport, Rhode Island, with juniors Allie Schwartz, Ruthie Furman and Victoria Vityuk winning their respective flights. On the men’s side, the Mountain Hawks placed fourth at the ECAC Championships, which Lehigh hosted September 22-23. Troy List was Lehigh’s top finisher, taking second place at flight B singles.
The Lehigh Invitational will get an earlier than usual start as the Lehigh men will face Hamilton College on Friday night. The full slate of action from the event will get underway at 9 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday on Lehigh’s adjoining indoor and outdoor tennis facilities, located on the Goodman Campus.
