The A&M men’s tennis team travels to Baton Rouge this weekend to play in the LSU invitational tournament, where they will compete in both singles and doubles competition.

This is one of the last team tournaments the Aggies will play in before concluding their fall schedule and beginning regular season play in January.

“It’s another opportunity for some of our guys to showcase their talent for [the coaching staff] so we give them an evaluation going into the spring season to see where they sit in the lineup,” A&M head coach Steve Denton said. “We’ve had a week or two to work on some stuff before going to compete one last time in the fall.”

With the fall tournaments coming to a close, Denton said he liked the progress his players have made in preparing for spring play, but they need to keep improving.

“We’re further along than from where we began,” Denton said. “I’m pleased with a lot of the things we’ve accomplished thus far both collectively and individually but there’s also room for significant improvement. We have lofty goals this year, we want to win the SEC and we would like to better our chances for the NCAA tournament.”

The end of tournament play also means that Denton and the coaching staff will have to start making roster decisions, and this weekend could be a chance for some players to compete for a starting spot, including junior Max Lunkin.

“Max Lunkin has shown that he has certainly moved up in our roster and looks like a potential starter in the spring,” Denton said. “So we’re very interested to see how he does.”

This weekend also features freshman Kevin Lam and junior James Martell who did not play for A&M last year.
The tournament begins Thursday, Nov. 5 and will declare a winner three days later on Sunday. For most of the A&M players it will be the end of competition until the spring semester.