SHAWNEE – Tennis coaches of the Great American Conference believe Oklahoma Baptist might be down this season.
After going undefeated through their debut in the GAC last season, the Lady Bison graduated No. 1 player Anatasia Baranova and are red-shirting last year's No. 2 Kateryna Shkot.
As a result, OBU is slotted third in the women's GAC preseason coaches' poll while the men, who did not win a GAC match last season, are picked last in the men's poll.
The Lady Bison return Olivia Charvat, Madeleine Boepple, Alex Bowers and Caroline Abbe, who all played in last season's NCCAA championship match. Newcomers Rouxanne Janse Van Rensburg, Kim Moosebacher and Veronica Parra are expected to make strong contributions.
Arkansas Tech got three first-place votes and edge Southeastern Oklahoma State with two first-place votes and OBU, which had two first-place votes in third place. Henderson State is ranked fourth, followed by Harding, Southern Nazarene and Ouachita Baptist.
The Bison will red-shirt last year's top player in Daniel Aguilera but return five players who made it to last year's NCCAA championship in Luis Romero, Thomas Ackerknecht, Michael Vetter, Lucas Castelo Branco and Babji Atturu.
Newcomers Kevin Andrusch, Teodoro Correa, Gianluca Galdi and Matias Le Fort will infuse strength and depth in this year's lineup.
Southeastern is picked first with three of four first-place votes, followed by Ouachita Baptist with one first-place vote, Harding and OBU.
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