WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Off to its best start since 2011, the William & Mary men's tennis team hosts in-state foe Richmond on Thursday night, Feb. 1, at 6 p.m. The teams square off for the first time in five seasons at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center as the Tribe continues its five-match homestand to open the 2018 dual-match campaign.
 
New to Tribe tennis in 2018, fans can watch the all action at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center via PlaySight. The advanced sports video and analytics technology provides fans with six fully automated HD cameras for live streaming. Both matches will be live streamed via PlaySight on TribeAthletics.com/TennisLive.
 
Scouting the Tribe
W&M is 3-0 to start 2018 thanks to a pair of 4-3 wins last weekend at home over CAA rival Elon and Ivy League foe Penn. Each of the Tribe's opening three wins has been by 4-3 scores. In the league triumph, W&M received singles wins from seniors Alec Miller (No. 2) and Lars de Boer (No. 3) as well as freshmen Louis Newman (No. 4) and Finbar Talcott (No. 5). The match came down the fifth-spot tilt between Talcott and Elon's Camilo Ponce. The Phoenix player led 4-1 in the decisive third set, before Talcott won five-straight games to clinch the Tribe victory. Against Penn, W&M claimed the doubles point thanks to a tiebreaker win from senior Christian Cargill and freshman Louis Newman at the No. 2 post. Miller and freshman Michael Chen teamed to pick up the other doubles victory at the top post. In singles, freshman Sebastian Quiros (No. 6) and Miller (No. 2) tallied victories, while Newman clinched the team victory with a three-set win over Penn senior Nicholai Westergaard at No. 4. Newman, who was named the CAA Player of the Week on Wednesday for his hot start to the spring, leads the team with 10 singles wins and is 3-0 in dual-match play, while Miller is 2-0 at No. 2. de Boer, Talcott and Quiros are all 2-1 in duals. Miller and Newman own the top doubles wins totals of the season with 10. A win over Richmond would match the program's best start to a season in the last 60 years. W&M started the 1997, 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons at 4-0. The Green and Gold enjoyed four-straight undefeated seasons between 1946-49 and won back-to-back national championships in 1947 and 1948.
 
Scouting Richmond
Richmond is 1-2 on the year entering Thursday's match. The Spiders opened the season with a narrow 4-3 loss to then-No. 12 Virginia, before downing Liberty, 4-3. In its most recent match, UR dropped its first A-10 match-up of the season 4-1 to Dayton. Caleb Troy (No. 1), Matt Fernandez (No. 2), James Aronson (No. 4) and Klein Evans (No. 5) posted singles wins to lead the Spiders to the come-from-behind win over the Flames. Against UVA, Richmond won the doubles point, while Troy (No. 1) and George Lovitt (No. 6) tallied singles wins. Troy and Aronson lead the Spiders with 2-1 dual-match singles marks. As a team, they are 2-1 at the No. 1 doubles post. Including the fall, Fernandez leads UR with a 12-6 singles mark.
 
Series History: W&M vs. Richmond
The Tribe and Spiders will meet for the first time since 2013. W&M leads the all-time series at 25-13, including a 19-7 mark in Williamsburg. The Green and Gold has won 18 straight against the Spiders. It will be the 13th meeting in a row between the teams in Williamsburg.