THIBODAUX, La. – Coming off an appearance in the Southland Conference Tournament finals, the Nicholls State University men's tennis team will begin their 2013 spring schedule with a match against conference-newcomer Oral Roberts on Friday. First serve is scheduled for noon at the Renaissance Health and Racquet Club in Houma.

The Colonels, who finished at 10-10 last season, are led by senior Dmitry Kozionov. Last spring, Kozionov posted a 12-6 record in singles, improving his overall career record to 41-15. In the Colonels' final fall tournament at Lamar, Kozionov went undefeated in his flight to earn a singles title.

Also returning for the Colonels are senior Roy Knight, juniors Guillermo Collado and Damian Despotovski and sophomore Sidharth Sivakumar. Knight had a solid junior campaign, going 8-6 in singles, while Despotovski anchored the lineup at the No. 1 spot, going 10-10. Sivakumar picked up seven wins for Nicholls last spring, including one in conference, and Collado saw action in seven matches, winning three.

In addition to the returning letterwinners, third-year head coach Meenakshi Sundaram added six newcomers to this year's team – juniors Jamie Eccleton, Manel Estruega and James Russell; and freshmen Evan Karatzas, Nico Mertens and Jeoffrey Noblecourt. In the fall, Mertens went undefeated at Southern Miss and reached the championship match in his flight at Lamar.

Following the match against ORU, the Colonels will head to Texas for matches against Texas A&M (Jan. 19) and Southern Methodist (Jan. 20).