GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.  – A heavily new look Golden Eagle men's and women's tennis teams open the 2021-22 year over Labor Day Weekend. The men open the season at Northwood on Saturday before hosting Bethel on Monday over at Calvin University, while the women join the men in hosting Bethel on Monday at Calvin. Below is a season preview and outlook for the Golden Eagle men's and women's tennis teams. 
 
Men's Tennis Preview:
Head Coach Austin Hendrick and the men's tennis team will rely on some new faces this season as two players who find themselves in the top 10 in program victories have now graduated in Aliaksei Kanstantsinau and John Cocoma. Both players combined for 127 total wins over their four seasons and are now sticking around CU to serve as assistant coaches on both the men's and women's side. 
 
Cornerstone still has a lot of veteran talent however as Mateo Jimenez is the lone senior and Jacob Stegman and Matthew Hall return for their junior seasons. Jimenez is an outstanding doubles player, going 8-2 last season, to go along with his 5-3 singles record.
 
Some of the new varsity faces that Head Coach Austin Hendrick has brought in include: Daniel Alfaro, Santiago Castellanos, and Andres Jimenez. CU now has players on the roster representing five different countries. 
 
Women's Tennis Preview:
Similar to the men, Head Coach Elijah Yi and the women's tennis program have a lot of new faces headed into the 2021-22 season. The team returns their top four players in Alayna Bowman, Valentina Garcia, Ximena Matamoros, and Hanna De La Vega Sanchez, but will see new faces fill in at the fifth and sixth positions. 
 
Renata Castillo, Daniela Fernandez, and Camila Ibarra are the three new freshmen that will be in competition for the final two positions this season. 
 
The major highlight from last season was Ximena Matamoros who did not arrive from Cucuta, Colombia until the spring semester, but came in and went 11-1 in singles play and 10-2 in doubles play. In a shortened season, Matamoros was just four total wins away from the program record for a single season, and she holds the best win percentage of any freshman in CU program history. 
 
Contact: Jesse Campbell | nathan-jesse.campbell@cornerstone.edu | 616-222-1505
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