The ACU men’s tennis team will play its first home tournament of the season this weekend in the Teague Events Center while the women travel to Ohio.

This weekend will be important for the Wildcats after a strong start to the season.

“Team-specific goals would be to improve in our ability to ‘adjust’ within each match to whatever conditions we are presented with either from our opponents, our own game to our match conditions,” said Hutton Jones, head coach.

Along with their goals and preparation, Jones talked about the importance and understanding of playing in tough tournaments.

“Each match is different and we have to be able to find a way to get things done even if we don’t have our ‘A’ game,” Jones said. “I believe strongly that it’s not how good you are when you are good, it’s really more about how good you are when you’re bad and struggling.”

The men’s matches begin Friday at 12:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. and will continue into Saturday at noon and 6 p.m.

The Women’s team will take on strong teams in Ohio. ACU will play University of Cincinnati, Wright State University and Xavier University.

Seniors Emily Conrad and Micah Hermsdorf are confident in this year’s team and are excited about the rest of the season.

“As a senior, my mentality has been to finish strong my last year. I am just trying to cherish every moment I have with the team from competing to team dinners,” Conrad said. “I feel like we are all playing very strong as seen in our first tournament. I think that despite tougher competition throughout the season, we will still be very successful.”

While the Wildcats physically prepare for the tournament, they are also mentally preparing.

“Mentally, I think we are just rolling up our sleeves and preparing for the fight,” Hermsdorf said. “We are the underdogs in D-1, but our hearts are determined to give these schools some competition.”