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The Niagara men’s tennis program begins its quest for a MAAC Championship against the defending tournament champion Fairfield Stags on Saturday at the Mercer County Park in West Windsor, N.J.

The Purple Eagles qualified for the four-team MAAC Tournament for the second straight season and has played in the tournament all five seasons under head coach Anthony Nguyen. NU finished the regular season with a 14-9 record which ties the 2002-03 team for second most wins in program history.

Niagara has six Purple Eagles in double-digit wins, led by junior Olivier Dufour-Coursol. The Quebec native had a MAAC-best 23-7 record and went 16-1 in No. 3 singles. Dufour-Coursol’s 23 wins set a Niagara single-season record for wins which was previously held by Walter Garcia during the 2004-05 season (22 wins).  He had a 10-match winning streak at one point in the season which was snapped in a three-set defeat at Binghamton.

Fellow Quebec native David Raymond is second on the team with an 18-12 record. Lorenz Schwojer went 17-7 and 9-3 in four singles. Schwojer was another Purple Eagle with a long winning streak, reeling off nine straight singles wins. Co-captains Mathieu Lacasse and Brandon Gallegos both won 16 matches, while having winning streaks of six and seven straight matches, respectively. Michael Elortegui won 10 matches in his first season as a Purple Eagle.

In doubles, it was the No. 1 duo of Dufour-Coursol and Raymond with a team-best 15-8 record. Elortegui and Lacasse had the second-best record at 10-3 on the season.

Niagara has dropped the last nine meetings to Fairfield (12-8, 5-1 MAAC), including four times in the MAAC Tournament semifinals. The Purple Eagles were edged 4-3 in last season’s semis to the Stags, who eventually won the tournament. Niagara is 2-5 versus the Stags in the MAAC Tournament since 2003 with wins coming in the 2003 semifinal and 2007 consolation match.

In this season’s matchup, Niagara had its eight-match winning streak snapped in a 5-2 setback at Fairfield on April 13.