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TOLEDO, Ohio (EMUEagles.com) — For the first time since 2018, the Eastern Michigan University tennis team has reached the postseason as the Eagles are the No. 4 seed in the 2024 Mid-American Conference Tournament which will be played Friday-Saturday, April 26-27, at the UT Varsity Tennis Courts in Toledo, Ohio. The Eagles (12-10, 6-4 MAC) will open tournament play Friday, April 26, at 10 a.m. and will face top-seeded University of Toledo (16-5, 9-1 MAC).
 
FIRST SERVES
» Eastern finished the regular season with a 12-10 overall record and 6-4 in MAC play, which tied the Eagles for third place with Miami. It was a tale of two locations this year as EMU went 11-0 at home and 1-10 on the road.
» The six MAC wins earned this year are the most since the 2013-14 squad went 6-2 and finished as the runner-up at the MAC Tournament.
» Through the end of the regular season, the Eagles have improved their win total from last year by six victories, the fourth-best turnaround in program history. EMU was 6-9 in 2022-23.
» The 11 home wins are a single-season record, surpassing the eight tallied in 2017-18. The 11-0 record marked just the fourth time in program history the Eagles went undefeated at home and the first since the 2003-04 team finished 7-0.
» Eastern has captured the doubles point in 12-of-22 matches (54.5 percent) after earning the point just four times last year. Since digital statistics began in 2005-06, the 12 doubles points won rank as the third-most in a single season for the Eagles and the most since EMU won 16 in 2021-22.
» EMU is making its first appearance in the MAC Tournament since 2018 when No. 5 EMU lost to No. 4 Bowling Green, 4-2, in the quarterfinals at Ball State. Eastern has captured two MAC Tournament titles (1998 and 2001) and finished as the runner-up five times (1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2014).
» Eastern will meet Toledo the sixth time in program history and is 4-1 against the Rockets in those meetings. The last tournament match was April 24, 2015, a 4-3 EMU win in the quarterfinals at Miami.
» Heading into the postseason, EMU is 2-1 against teams that won their respective conferences this year, including wins over MAC champion Toledo (4-3) and Horizon League champion Cleveland State (6-1) and one loss to MEAC champion South Carolina State (6-1). Overall, 11 of the Eagles’ 22 matches were played against teams that finished in the top three of their conferences.
» With the 6-1 win over Hillsdale, Jan. 27, Ryan Kucera collected his first victory leading EMU after taking over Aug. 9, 2023. The 6-1 win over Cleveland State, Feb. 4, marked the first win over an NCAA Division I foe at EMU for Kucera, who is 12-10 with EMU and 39-48 in his career.
» With 12 wins, Ryan Kucera is currently tied for the third-most wins in a debut season for an EMU tennis coach with Ryan Ray (2006-07). His six MAC wins rank second behind only Tim Gray (2002-03), who had eight in his debut season.
» The 2023-24 season is the fourth for Ryan Kucera as a head coach. By earning a berth into the MAC Tournament, he has now guided his team to the semifinals in three consecutive seasons with three different programs, including Minnesota State (2022), Milwaukee (2023), and Eastern (2024).
 
THE 2024 MAC TOURNAMENT
The four-team MAC Tournament will be played in Toledo at the UT Varsity Tennis Courts and will feature Toledo (No. 1 seed), Western Michigan (No. 2), Miami (No. 3) and Eastern Michigan (No. 4). The winners of the semifinals, which will be played Friday, April 26, will meet Saturday, April 27, at 1 p.m. to play for the conference crown. In addition to a league title, the winner of the tournament will earn the MAC’s automatic berth into the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Live statistics for the matches will be available on the MAC website, GetSomeMACtion.com.
 
MAC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Since the team format began in 1997, Eastern has reached the finals seven times and captured the crown in both 1998 and 2001 while finishing second in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2014. The last time the Eagles qualified for the tournament was 2018 where No. 5 EMU fell to No. 4 Bowling Green, 4-2, in the quarterfinals at Ball State. The last time the Eagles posted a win in the MAC Tournament came in 2015 with a 4-3 win over No. 5 Toledo at Miami.
 
SCOUTING: TOLEDO
Toledo enters the tournament on its home courts as the two-time MAC regular season champions and are riding a 15-match home winning streak. After suffering a 4-3 loss at EMU, April 14, which snapped their 18-match MAC winning streak, the Rockets rebounded with a home win over Buffalo (6-1) and a road win at Ball State (7-0).
 
IN THE SERIES: EAGLES vs. ROCKETS
With their 4-3 win at home, April 14, the Eagles are 33-15 all-time against the Rockets with that victory snapping a three-match losing streak. The Eagles are 14-7 all-time when playing the Rockets in Toledo but have dropped the last three meetings. The last time Eastern played Toledo in the tournament was in 2015 when the Eagles won, 4-3, at Toledo in the regular season before defeating the Rockets, 4-3, in the quarterfinals played at Miami.
 
TOURNEY HISTORY: TOLEDO
Eastern and Toledo are meeting for sixth time in the MAC Tournament with the Eagles holding a 4-1 record, including a 4-3 win in the most recent meeting, which came April 24, 2015, at Miami. This week’s match will mark the first time the two teams have met in the semifinals.
 
TOURNEY HISTORY: WESTERN MICHIGAN
Should the Eagles and No. 2 seed Broncos meet in the final, it would mark the 10th time the Mitten State rivals would meet in the MAC Tournament and the first since the 2011 event in Ypsilanti, a 4-2 win for WMU. The Broncos hold a 5-4 advantage in tournament matches and have won four in a row.
 
TOURNEY HISTORY: MIAMI
Should the Eagles and No. 3 seed Miami meet in the finals, it would mark the sixth MAC Tournament meeting with the RedHawks holding a 3-2 advantage with wins in the last three meetings, including a 4-1 win in the 2015 semifinals played in Oxford, Ohio.
 
LOOKING BACK: WEEKEND SWEEP
Last weekend, the Eagles posted wins in both of their matches, including a 5-2 home win over rival Western Michigan, April 19, and a 6-1 road win at Bowling Green, April 21, to clinch a berth into the MAC Tournament. The Eagles won the doubles point in both matches before Daniella Shved, Prerna Vichare, Ksyusha Saenko, and Sabina Brichackova all went 2-0 in singles play to help Eastern to victories.
 
TALE OF TWO LOCATIONS
In the regular season, the Eagles finished 12-10 with a perfect 11-0 record at home and a 1-10 mark on the road. With those results, Eastern finished undefeated at home for only the fourth time in program history while the road win was the first in over one year as the previous win came in a 5-2 win at Northern Illinois, April 14, 2023.
 
HOME SWEEP HOME
The Eagles went 11-0 at home this season, a mark that set program records. The 11 wins are a single-season record, surpassing the eight home wins secured in the 2017-18 season and are more than the combined home win total of the previous five seasons. The eighth EMU team to play nine or more home matches, this year’s squad finished with 11 home matches, surpassing the previous record of 10, which happened in both 1980-81 and 2017-18. Finally, three previous teams finished undefeated at home, including the 1978-79 (3-0), 2000-01 (5-0), and 2003-04 (7-0) squads.
 
DOUBLING UP
Last year, Eastern won the doubles point four times total. This year, the tides have turned as the Eagles have secured the point 12 times, including seven times in MAC matches. Eastern secured the doubles point 10 times at home, including in MAC wins over Ball State (March 22), Northern Illinois (March 29), Buffalo (April 7), Toledo (April 14), and Western Michigan (April 19) while also taking the point at Miami (March 17) and Bowling Green (April 21) in road contests.
 
CLOSE CALLS
With their 4-3 win over Toledo, April 14, the Eagles are 2-3 this year in one-point matches after falling by the same score to Valparaiso (Feb. 18), Miami (March 17), and Ball State (March 24), all on the road. Following the match with UT, Eastern is now 108-95 all-time in one-point matches and 33-35 at home, including the 4-3 win over Buffalo, April 7. Additionally, the Eagles are 42-44 in one-point MAC meetings with an 19-21 home mark.
 
TURNING IT AROUND
The six-win improvement the Eagles posted this year ranks as the fourth-best in program history. The largest turnaround came when the 2017-18 team went 16-10 one year after EMU was 6-16. If Eastern were to win twice this weekend in Toledo, the eight-win improvement would tie for the second-best with the 2001 squad (9-11 to 16-7).
 
AMONG THE LEADERS
Through the regular season, both Linda Eloundou (23) and Ksyusha Saenko (21) posted 20+ wins with Andrea Quiroz just off the mark with 19. When adding their wins at doubles, the trio finished the regular season with 35+ combined wins as both Eloundou and Saenko tallied 36 victories and Quiroz tallied 23.
 
BIG IMPROVEMENTS
Four Eagles posted win total improvements this season, including two with double-digit improvements. Linda Eloundou stands 23-9 in singles this year, which is a 19-win improvement over her 4-9 mark last year. Andrea Quiroz is 19-14 this year after posting a 3-11 mark, an improvement of 16 wins. Additionally, Vidisha Reddy has improved by three (1-7 to 4-5) while Regina Mendez has improved by two (3-7 to 5-8).
 
ON THE RISE
Both Sabina Brichackova and Prerna Vichare continue to climb higher toward the program’s all-time top 20 for wins. Brichackova has posted 25 combined wins this year with 11 in singles and 14 in doubles, bringing her career totals to 89 combined on 46 singles and 43 doubles wins. Vichare’s 19 wins have brought her career total to 69 combined wins with both juniors having a shot at reaching the top 20 next season.
 
CLIMBING HIGHER
The 11th head coach in program history, Ryan Kucera has accumulated 12 this season, a total that ranks him tied for third for a first-year coach in program history with Ryan Ray (2006-07). The most wins in a debut season since Jayson Wiseman‘s 16 in 2017-18, Kucera also has six MAC wins, the most since Wiseman’s 2014 team went 6-2 and were MAC runners-up. Those six conference wins rank as the second-most in a debut season behind the eight wins Tim Gray‘s (2002-03) squad captured.
 
FINDING A WAY IN
The 2023-24 season marks the fourth as a collegiate head coach for Ryan Kucera. With his Eagles making the MAC Tournament field, he has now successfully guided a team to the conference semifinals in three consecutive seasons, all with different teams. He first helped Minnesota State to the semifinals of the 2022 Northern Sun Conference Tournament before guiding Milwaukee to the semifinals of the 2023 Horizon League Tournament.
 
ON THE HORIZON
The Eagles will need to win the MAC Tournament to extend their season as the champion will earn the league’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. The official announcements for qualified teams will be made Sunday night.
 
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