MONTGOMERY, Ala. | Alabama State, the defending Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) champion, opens the season on the road against Middle Tennessee in Murfreesboro Sunday afternoon.
 
The Hornets, who won their second conference championship in three years, return four players from last year's team that includes last year's tournament MVP in Tomas Fernandez and all-tournament selection Carl Louis-Luckmann. The team also returns all-conference performer Ion Efrim from last season.
 
Fernandez finished the year 8-6 in singles, while playing 11 matches (5-6) at number three singles. He also finished the year 11-6 in doubles play, playing with Luckmann at number two and three. The duo finished undefeated against conference competition and also finished 8-1 at number three doubles.
 
Luckmann played 14 matches in singles play, with the majority of his matches coming at number four singles (nine).
 
Meanwhile, Efrim was named All-Conference and finished the year 9-6 in singles play and was undefeated against conference competition. He played the majority of last season at number two (11 matches) and went 6-5 in that slot, while also going 3-1 at number one singles. Efrim finished 12-8 in doubles play, playing all of his matches at number one doubles with teammate Takura Mlambo.
 
Trajkovski is the only player returning for Alabama State and played five matches in singles play, going 2-3 in those matches. He played all of this matches at number six singles and also played a pair of doubles matches – finishing 1-1 in those matches.
 
The match begins at 4 pm (est) Sunday afternoon at the Adams Tennis Complex.
 
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