HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana men's tennis team will open its 2009 spring schedule this weekend, heading to Memphis for a pair of non-conference matches.

The Lions will open the season on Friday, facing Memphis (1-1) at 12 p.m. Southeastern will remain in Memphis on Saturday, when it will take on Murray State (0-2) at 10 a.m.

Southeastern finished 2008 with an 18-9 overall record. The Lions advanced to the Southland Conference Tournament semifinals before falling to eventual SLC champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

The top returners for the Lions are sophomores Julien Roussel and Alexis Biarneix, both who were among the team's top performers as freshmen. Roussel, a native of France, posted a team-high 19 singles wins during the spring, posting a 19-8 record. Biarneix, who hails from French Guiana, was 17-7 in his first season in a Southeastern uniform.

The Lions will be replacing the three most experienced players off last season's roster in 2008 seniors Vladimir Paunic, Ondrej Krivka and Matthieu Leboucher. While replacing the All-SLC trio will not be easy, Southeastern head coach Jason Hayes has brought in a talented group of six newcomers.

Hayes expects new additions sophomore Jan Bezdecka, junior Benjamin Enke and sophomore Stepan Siska to make an immediate positive impact, combining with the returning Roussel and Biarneix to form a formidable group.

“We head into the year with a team we feel is capable of contending for a Southland Conference championship,” Hayes stated. “We feel that we have a good balance throughout our lineup and that we don't have much disparity from the top of the singles lineup to the bottom. Our conference continues to get tougher each season and we'll have to be at our best in every league match.”

The Lions will face a Memphis team in the opener that they defeated a season ago, 5-2. The Tigers opened the spring with a 6-1 loss to No. 24 Rice, before bouncing back with a 7-0 rout of Prairie View.

K.C. Griffin, Jordan Smith and Jorge Vazquez are all 1-0 in singles play this spring, while Leon Nasemann, Benedikt Fischer and Michael Gaerthoeffner are 1-1 for the Tigers in singles action. Fischer is 2-0 in doubles play, teaming with both Smith and Griffin for victories.

Murray State will be looking for its first win of the spring on Saturday. The Racers fell to Louisville and Kentucky to open the season, dropping a 6-0 decision to UK and a 7-0 loss to UL.

Following this weekend's opening action, the Lions will be off until Feb. 11, when they head to UNO for a 2 p.m. match in New Orleans.