By Brian Roe, Sports Writer

ACU’s Wal-Mart Open has been canceled due to weather and the lack of completion of the new tennis center.

“I had to make the decision to play or not by Monday and it had been raining throughout the weekend, so I just decided to cancel it,” tennis coach Hutton Jones said.

According to NCAA rules, no tennis competition outside of national tournaments can take place in the month of November. The men’s and women’s teams will instead participate in an intersquad match Thursday and Friday.

The fall season has been a success in many ways for members of the Wildcats tennis team. Invitations to tournaments such as the Razorback Invitational and the Texas Christian Invitational inspired the Wildcats to knock off some tough division I opponents.

“It was a great experience competing against so many Division I teams. We played some big matches and defeated some tough opponents. It certainly prepared us for the regional tournament where we dominated everywhere but the finals,” Jones said.

With the completion of the fall season, the Wildcats will begin preparing for the spring. And that means the often-dreaded off-season workouts will soon begin.

“I’ll say this much; our players will be in the best shape of their life by the time Christmas rolls around,” Jones said.

Jones said he expects ACU to compete in 25 to 30 matches before the Spring Regional Tournament. The tough opponents include Texas Christian, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, New Mexico State and Rice.

“There’s no other D-IIschool in the country that will play three to four Big-12 schools that are nationally ranked like TCU and A&M,” Jones said.

“It’s pretty huge … but, I can’t let this cat out of the bag just yet,” Jones said referring to the possibility of another spring tournament.

The brand new Cecil Eager Tennis Center is expected to be completed by the start of the spring season. The season is scheduled to begin Feb. 1.