ACU hosted the Western Athletic Conference men’s and women’s tennis tournament for the first time in program history.

“It’s great. Even just the way other teams react to the facility that we have, the school is an opportunity to come to Abilene, to come to ACU,” Men’s Head Coach Juan Nunez said. “Just being able to bring everybody else here and let people see what we have and what we can offer is amazing.”

In 2022 the men’s team won the WAC tournament and had one of the favorites to win this year, Daniel Morozov, senior from Joliet, Illinois.

In the men’s doubles bracket, ACU lost in the first round to University of Texas at Arlington. The women’s team lost in the first round of the doubles bracket to Grand Canyon University.

The men’s team had two competitors in the singles bracket, Morozov and Martin Delnido, sophomore from Tandil, Argentina. Delnido lost in the first round to Grand Canyon University’s Nikita Volonski.

Morozov won his first match making it to the semifinals and losing to UTA’s Andres Medus, who won the men’s single bracket.

“I didn’t expect for it to be that much on Daniel, him being a senior and a very experienced player that has played big matches for us here and even before coming to college,” Nunez said. “That’s a kid that has played all over the world and has had plenty of big match experience.”

The women’s team had two competitors in the singles bracket, Olivia Sears, junior from Goshen, Indiana, and Masha Vrsalovic, junior from Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Sears made it to the quarterfinals and lost to Tarleton State University, Vrsalovic lost in the first round to Utah Tech University.

“Everybody competed super well,” said women’s Head Coach Bryan Rainwater. “We went in with a little bit of nerves and I think that cost us a little bit–Started off slow in both of the singles.”

With the fall season now over for both teams the focus is now on the spring season.

Rainwater said that the main goal for the women’s team will be to get healthy and improve the singles lineups.

“Getting healthy is just the biggest thing for this fall,” Rainwater said. “We had two or three injuries at times where people didn’t get to play in tournaments so we didn’t get to see what they could do.”

For the men’s team, it will be about growing as a group since seven of the players are freshmen and sophomores.

“There’s a lot of growth that we need to do in the next two to three months that we need to do to be ready for spring,” Nunez said. “I think we’re very talented and very deep as far as the lineup goes. We need to become a better team and they just need to establish themselves here at ACU.”

The teams will show any improvements made when they are back in action when the spring tennis season starts in January.