WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University men's tennis team enters the Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) Team Championship as the No. 1 seed and seeking its 11^th consecutive conference championship. The Colonels are set host No. 4 seed DeSales University in the semifinal round today at the Ralston Athletic Complex with a 3:30 p.m. start time.

The contest will be a rematch of last season's semifinal matchup in the MAC Freedom tournament where Wilkes defeated DeSales.

Wilkes enters the postseason after a perfect 6-0 regular season in the MAC Freedom and at 18-5 overall while DeSales went 3-3 in the conference and 9-5 overall.

On April 14^th the Colonels defeated the Bulldogs 8-1 at the Ralston Athletic Complex in the regular season meeting. Artyom Nabokin (Las Vegas, NV/Danvers), Andrew Neidig (Matamoras, PA/Delaware Valley), Ryan Simon (Mahwah, NJ/De Paul Diocesan), Chris Maderitz (York, PA/Central York), and Gabriel Velez (Allentown, PA/Allentown Central Catholic) picked up straight-set singles wins at the one through five positions while Austin Wesch of DeSales used a tiebreak victory to win the No. 6 singles matchup. The tandems of Courtney Murphy (Bronx, NY/Christopher Columbus) / Jonathan White (Saylorsburg, PA/Pleasant Valley), Velez / Andrew MacDonald (Bridgeton, NJ/Cumberland Regional), and Alec Levin (Cape May, NJ/Lower Cape May) / Jack Maline (Northport, NY/Northport) provided the sweep of the three doubles flights for Wilkes.

Murphy, the two-time defending MAC Freedom Player of the Year, has led the Colonels from the No. 1 singles position for the majority of the season. He has gone 12-3 in those matches and 22-4 overall during his junior campaign. He has a 15-6 overall doubles record including going 8-4 from the No. 1 slot including a 7-4 record when teaming with White. White has recorded a 14-8 overall doubles record and a 16-6 singles mark. The junior went 8-2 when competing No. 3 singles matches this season.

Nabokin accumulated a 9-5 singles record from the No. 2 position and has a 15-10 overall record. Neidig went 12-6 in singles action with a 5-0 mark from the No. 2 spot and a 4-5 record at No. 3. He also contributed the most doubles victories on the team with a 16-7 overall record and a 4-1 mark from the No. 1 slot.

Danny Lynn has led the Bulldogs from the No. 1 singles position with a 12-2 record. He is 16-4 overall this season. The freshman has also gone 7-7 from the No. 1 doubles spot including 6-7 with Jorey Ferraro as his partner. Ferraro has a 5-9 record from the No. 2 singles position.

The winner of this semifinal matchup will advance to Saturday's final to take on the winner of the other semifinal where No. 2 King's College is hosting No. 3 FDU-Florham. The MAC Freedom Championship Final will take place at the highest remaining seed at a time to be determined.