MTSU men’s tennis (14-11) is headed to Lynchburg, Virginia for the 2025 Conference USA tournament. 

The Blue Raiders came into the season winners of an unprecedented five straight CUSA Championships and will be gunning for a sixth straight title this weekend.  

After finishing the regular season with an 11-5 home record, 2-5 away and 1-1 neutral, MTSU enters the tournament as the top seed in CUSA and receives a first-round bye. With the bye, Middle Tennessee will face the winner of No. 4 seed New Mexico State (9-13) and No. 5 Kennesaw State (7-9) in the semifinals on Saturday, April 19 at 12:00 p.m. CDT.  

Due to CUSA’s small pool of men’s tennis programs, the Blue Raiders met neither New Mexico State nor Kennesaw State in the regular season. 

Should the MTSU win its semifinal match, they would play the winner of No. 2 Liberty (10-12) and No. 3 Jacksonville State (12-6) in the championship match on Sunday, April 20 at 11:00 a.m. CDT. MTSU defeated Liberty in last year’s title match to secure its fifth consecutive championship. 

With Middle Tennessee’s half decade of dominance on the court, head coach Jimmy Borendame knows that the target on the team’s back only grows larger each year. 

“Everyone’s gunning for us… we’re just going to take it one match at a time,” Borendame said following MTSU’s senior day. 

One aid to MTSU’s repeat efforts is the return of sophomore Jakub Kroslak from injury. Kroslak participated in the senior day match against Tennessee State but missed the prior four contests due to an undisclosed injury. He will be a participant in the tournament, Borendame said. 

“The biggest thing is we got Jakub back, Kroslak back,”  Borendame said. “I’ve been kind of holding him back so he can be fully healthy, and he looked really solid today [April 14].”  

Additionally, Borendame hopes to get standout freshman Kacper Szymkowiak back into the lineup, getting to full strength. 

“The plan is to have Kacper [Szymkowiak] hopefully maybe even back and then we’ll really be full strength,” Borendame said. “Then we’ll really be a force to be reckoned with.”   

While MTSU has dominated the conference for the last five seasons, attempting to keep the streak alive brings added pressure.  

“There was pressure to win the first one, more pressure to win the second one, it’s just compiling and compiling,” Borendame said. “To be honest I never thought winning would be so stressful, but it is.”  

Regardless of the target on their back, the Blue Raiders will look to defend their title once more this weekend. All CUSA Championship matches can be streamed on ESPN+. For the complete tournament bracket click here.