By Brian Roe, Sports Writer

The men’s tennis team will travel to New Mexico this weekend to compete in the Aggie Invitational, facing tough competition like New Mexico State., Tennessee Tech, Pan American and West New Mexico.

ACU will also play Monday against Texas Tech, and head coach Hutton Jones, said the brutal schedule that serves up five matches over three days will be good for his team.

“We won’t improve unless we play against tougher competition,” Jones said. “I’m excited about this trip. No one understands, but the lifeblood of my program is good competition.”

ACU is hoping to bounce back from a loss to Rice last weekend. Rice, one of the top 40 teams in Division I, manhandled the Wildcats, winning all seven matches. Jones, however, said the experience is good in the long run.

“Rice has the top men’s doubles team in the nation,” Jones said. We’re not up to their level talent-wise but as far as effort goes we’re right with them.”

The Wildcats also faced Oral Roberts, Howard Payne and Dallas Baptist last weekend. Oral Roberts defeated ACU 4-3, but the Cats swept 18 straight matches against HPU and DB.

For now, however, the team is only focused on this coming weekend’s tournament.

“This weekend is going to be tough, but if we come out and play strong we could pull off a win,” freshmen Evan Puglia said.