DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The second-ranked Embry-Riddle men's tennis team began defense of its Sun Conference title with a 9-0 victory over Ave Maria, Tuesday at the Crotty Tennis Center. The NAIA Men's Tennis Coaches' Preseason Top 25 poll was released just minutes after the completion of Tuesday's match and saw the Eagles, who were last year's national runner-up, receive 241 points in the voting, just nine points behind top-ranked defending national champion Fresno Pacific (250 points).

Ninth-ranked Simon Felix and Peter Francis were the first off the court after registering an 8-0 shutout of Matt Vicinanzo and Anselm Karns at the third doubles spot. Chris Freeman and newcomer JR Leonik made the score 2-0 with an 8-1 win over Alex Pince and Teddy Pince at the No. 2 spot. The top-ranked tandem of ERAU of Adrian Bayh and Patrick Besch fell behind AMU's Joseph Jaindl and Eric Peterson early at the top spot, but the ERAU doubles pair rebounded to take an 8-3 win and give the Blue and Gold a 3-0 advantage.
    
Felix, who is ranked 11th in singles, was the first off the court in singles play with his 6-0, 6-0 defeat of Teddy Pince at the fourth spot. Bayh followed with a 6-1, 6-0 decision against Peterson to clinch the Eagle victory at No. 3.

Besch was the next to finish his match and the sophomore came away with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Jaindl at the second position. Freeman, the top-ranked player in NAIA men's tennis, bested Alex Pince (6-2, 6-1), while No. 19 Francis blanked Vicinanzo 6-0, 6-0 and Leonik shut out Karns to seal the win.

ERAU will go on its first road trip of the season this weekend when they travel to Miami for a pair of matches. The Blue and Gold will face St. Thomas in a conference match-up at 10 a.m. on Saturday followed by at contest against NCAA II No. 2 Barry at the same time on Sunday.