KENNESAW, Ga. — Kennesaw State men's tennis opens its 2026 fall season at the Samford Invitational at Pat M. Courington Tennis Pavilion in Birmingham, Alabama, Sept. 18-20.

A live stream is available for each of the event's three days of action.

KSU is coming off a 2025-26 season in which it went 15-7 in dual matches and finished fourth in Conference USA. Fifteen wins a season ago are tied for the second-most in program history.

Five Owls return in 2026-27, bringing with them 63 of 100 singles wins from 2025-26.

All-CUSA First Team selection Nathan Walters runs it back at KSU after a freshman campaign in which he went 21-4, breaking the program record for season singles winning percentage (.840).

Dominic Ducariu and Xavi Ferrer also return with 18 wins apiece from last season.

The Owls will also benefit from the leadership of returning seniors Ben Hudson and Kyvan Rietkerk. Hudson starred on court one for KSU in 14 matches as a junior while going 9-9 in doubles. Rietkerk helped the Owls sweep the March 25 CUSA weekly awards with a Men's Doubles Team of the Week honor.

Freshmen Juan Parrilla, Frederik Tandeter and Konstantinos Megalemos are set to join KSU ahead of the coming season.

Parrilla, a five-star prospect out of Georgia's Decatur High School, is the highest-rated recruit in program history. Tandeter arrives from Wettingen, Switzerland with a U18 Swiss state title and UTR rankings of 12.12 (singles) and 12.11 (doubles). Megalemos, a native of Nicosia, Cyprus, comes to KSU as his nation's top-ranked U18 player with 2025-26 records of 26-10 in singles and 14-10 in doubles.

Samford finished the spring 2026 season ranked No. 72 in the final Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings. The Bulldogs went 17-7, winning a second straight SoCon Tournament title and advancing to the NCAA Tournament, where they lost 4-1 to Wisconsin in the opening round.

The All-SoCon doubles team of Lukas Dvorak and Cooper Errey, as well as All-SoCon singles selection Sebastian Harrison, headline Samford's returners in fall 2026.

KSU's last dual match meeting with the Bulldogs resulted in a 5-2 Owl win in Kennesaw on Feb. 6, 2026.

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