April 22, 2009

EDINBURG- With the brackets drawn for the Southland Conference Men's Tennis Tournament the University of Texas-Pan American men's tennis program secured a first round bye where they will face the winner between No. 3 UTSA and No. 6 Nicholls State Saturday April 24 at 9:30 a.m.

This is the ninth season the Broncs compete in the SLC as an affiliate member and it's the third straight season they make it to the tournament. The Broncs enter in the No. 2 seed for their 4-2 regular season campaign and the host school Texas A&M Corpus Christi enters as the No. 1 seed for their perfect 6-0 campaign.

"We're really proud of the fact that we secured a first round bye," interim head coach Chris Gill said. "We have the second best record going into conference and that's a huge boost for us."

The Broncs are looking to capture their first conference tournament win since 2003 when they beat Lamar University. Gill also said he knows that confidence plays a huge factor with a winning on Saturday because the Broncs have defeated Nicholls State and UTSA but he also knows that this is a tournament and anything can happen.

"As far as the tournament goes we're looking forward to whoever is going to be playing us on Saturday whether it's Nicholls State or UTSA," Gill said. "We have wins against both of those teams so I feel confident we can win again. We know what to expect with those guys and we also know it's a different story at the conference tournament."

Should the Broncs advance to the final they will face the winner between TAMUCC and Southeastern Louisiana/UT Arlington on Sunday at noon.