The Niagara tennis programs will wrap up their Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) regular season schedule this weekend.  The men’s and women’s team will face Rider on Saturday while the women’s team will take on Manhattan on Sunday at Noon.

The men’s team (10-6, 3-2 MAAC) can clinch the third seed in this month’s MAAC Tournament with a victory over Rider (3-14, 0-3 MAAC) on Saturday. The Purple Eagles have won six of their last seven matches and have won four straight matches for their longest winning streak since notching five straight wins in March 2010.

Leading the charge for the Purple Eagles is freshman Lorenz Schwojer who has won six straight singles matches and is 6-1 in the fifth slot this spring. Senior David Lemieux-Sarrasin is on a four-match win streak and team captain Brandon Gallegos has won his last two matches in No. 3 singles. Two Purple Eagles have 10-plus singles wins this spring: Olivier Dufour-Coursol (12-4) and David Raymond (10-6).  

The women’s team (5-12, 1-4 MAAC) enters this weekend’s matches in the hunt to qualify for the four-team MAAC Tournament. The Purple Eagles will need to defeat Rider (5-11, 0-5 MAAC) and Manhattan (5-10, 2-3 MAAC) and have favorable results over the next week.

Freshman Maria Ortiz’s torrid run of six straight wins in singles has propelled her to a team-leading 14-3 record. Team captain Hilary Hansen (11-6) has won four of her last six matches while Ashley Ta is 5-2 in her last seven matches. The doubles tandem of Ortiz and Ta are a team-best 10-7 this spring.