Emporia State Men's Tennis plays host to Harding

Men’s Tennis | 3/7/2026 12:44:00 AM

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HOME FOR A MINUTE

The Emporia State men play their only home match in a span of 40 days when they play host to Harding on Saturday afternoon at the Kossover Family Tennis Center.

LAST TIME OUT

Emporia State won five of six singles matches to cruise to a 6-1 win over the Southeastern Oklahoma on Tuesday in Durant, Okla.

The Hornets dropped the first doubles match but came back with a pair of 6-2 wins by Luke West and Duvan Santiago Torres at #2 and Roko Kacer and Mostafa Elbasnaly at #3 to secure the first point.

Diego Calvo won 7-5, 6-2 at #2 singles and Elbasnaly took a 6-3, 6-3 win at #1 to give Emporia State a 3-0 lead. Southeastern won at #3 in a three sets before the Hornets closed out with three wins. Kacer won 6-2, 6-0 at #6 to clinch the dual win while Torres won 6-4, 6-2 at #5 and West took a 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 win at #4 for the final score.

THE COACHES

John Blackburn is 26-17 in his third season as the head men’s coach and Director of Tennis at Emporia State. He spent the previous eight seasons as the head coach at NCAA Division III Methodist University in Fayetteville, N.C. He went 117-58 overall with a 54-4 record in conference play, winning three regular season conference championships, two conference tourney championships and made two NCAA Tournament appearances. He was also a head coach at Eastern Illinois, Coker College and Palm Beach Atlantic.

QUICK LOOK AT THE HORNETS

The Hornet men are 5-1 in the spring season. Mostafa Elbasnaly is undeated in the spring against four year competition going 6-0 at the #1 and #2 spot.

Anton Sarunic ended last season ranked #24 in the nation in NCAA Division II singles, and the team of graduate student Gwendal Mazuay and sophomore Alexis Mattenberger ended last season ranked #45 in the nation in D2 doubles play.

KNOW THE FOE

The Harding men are 6-2 on the season including a 4-3 win over Northwest Missouri in their last outing. Two of their losses have come to teams ranked in the top ten in then #5 UT-Tyler and #6 Lubbock Christian. Sebastian DeLasSalas is 5-2 in dual action at the #1 spot for the Bisons. They have used eight different doubles combinations this spring in dual play

SERIES HISTORY

This will be just the fifth meeting between Emporia State and Harding. The Bisons have won all four previous meetings with the Hornets.

LAST TIME VS THE BISONS

In a dual that saw four singles matches go to a third set and the doubles point decided in a tiebreaker, Emporia State fell 5-2 at #21 Harding in Searcy, Ark.

Doubles started with the Bisons #23 doubles team of Cas de Ruiter and Adrian Solorzano taking a 6-3 win over the Hornets #36 team of Alexis Mattenberger and Gwendal Mazuay. Hachem Fahem and Roko Kacer evened the doubles for Emporia State with a 6-3 win at #3. The deciding match for doubles came down to a tie breakser with Florian Gayme and Cian Mikkelsen winning 7-6 (7-5) over Anton Sarunic and Luke West to give Harding a 1-0 lead.

Kacer got the Hornets on the board with a 7-5, 7-5 win at #6 before Duvan Santiago Torres fell 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) at #5 to put the Bisons up 2-1. The final four singles matches all went to a third set. Solorzano, who was ranked #24 nationally, defeated Mostafa Elbasnaly 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 at #2 to give Harding a 3-1 lead and HU clinched the match with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 win over Mattenberger at the #3 spot.

The #1 singles match featured a pair of nationally ranked players and saw two of the three sets go to a tiebreaker. The Bisons de Ruiter, who was ranked #10, prevailed with a 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-1) win over the Hornets Sarunic, who was #22 in the nation. Diego Calvo finished the dual for Emporia State with a come from behind 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win at #4 singles.

UP NEXT

The Hornet men will travel to Arkansas next week to take on Ouachita Baptist and Southern Arkansas.

Emporia State Men’s Tennis plays host to Harding

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