GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University men's tennis team will open its 2026 schedule on Friday, Jan. 30 when the Pioneers visit Tuskegee for the first of 23 regular-season matches this spring.
The Pioneer men welcome back seven players from last year's squad, with four transfers and three freshmen added to the roster of first-year head coach Wyatt Pauley. Pauley comes to Tusculum after coaching at his alma mater Quincy and Kutztown over the past four seasons.
Tusculum's men will face six 2025 NCAA Division II Tournament qualifiers during the 2026 season, after the Pioneers finished with an 8-12 overall record and a 6-6 mark in South Atlantic Conference play last year.
Senior Will Gee (Faversham, England) is the only four-year member of the program, holding a 28-23 career record in singles and 33-33 in doubles play. Gee was a third-team All-SAC selection in singles in 2024 when he posted a career-high 15 victories.
Senior Sarthak Sharma (Haryana, India) is in his third season with the Pioneers and is 15-9 in singles and 7-5 in doubles during his Tusculum career. Senior Mario Jimenez Martinez (Murcia, Spain) joins the program after playing two seasons at Hope International, where he competed in four matches in singles and five in doubles.
Junior Rens Verhaar (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) has posted a 16-18 record in singles and 28-23 in doubles in his two seasons with the Pioneers. Verhaar played exclusively at flights one and two last season.
Joining the Pioneers are junior transfers Romain Payan (Paris, France), Angus Howard (Bath, England) and David Negzaoui (Valbonne, France). Payan was 15-13 in singles and 12-9 in doubles last season at Colorado Mesa, while Howard posted a 4-9 record in singles at Northern Illinois during the 2025 campaign. Negzaoui comes to Tusculum from Newberry, where he was third-team All-SAC in doubles as a freshman.
A quartet of sophomores return for the Pioneers this season, Angelos Avgeris (Thessaloniki, Greece), Eli England (Tazewell, Tenn.), Kai Poelchau (Culemborg, The Netherlands) and Isaac Wolff (Stockholm, Sweden). Avgeris played primarily doubles last season, going 13-3 overall and 8-1 in conference play, with Poelchau posting a 4-10 singles record. Wolff went 3-1 in singles and 2-0 in doubles, and England was 1-3 in singles and 3-2 in doubles play.
Joining the program as freshmen are Reese McCann (Belfast, Northern Ireland), Andrei Negoita (Brussels, Belgium) and Shuzo Uemura (Yanawaga City, Japan.).
Tusculum will play 10 non-conference matches through the end of February before opening its 11-match SAC schedule on Wednesday, March 4 against Anderson. The regular season will conclude on Saturday, April 11 at home against Catawba, with the SAC Championship Tournament being held April 16-18 at the Palmetto Tennis Center in Sumter, South Carolina.
