BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. – UVa-Wise men's tennis has been selected seventh in the Mountain East Conference preseason poll. The league office made the announcement Tuesday afternoon as voted on by the league coaches.

The Cavs finished last season with a 3-14 overall record and a 1-6 league mark. UVa-Wise is without three top-performers from last year after graduating a trio of seniors in Christopher Armistead, Andrii Rutnytskyi, and Viktor Tunnikov.

Head Coach Roger Whited embarks on his first season with the Cavs after taking over the head coaching duties this past summer.This season, the team returns junior John Hamilton and sophomore Coleton Burke while welcoming freshmen Jakub Blach, Dominic Hoffman, and Luke Jarnagin, as well as junior Daniel Laughlin to the team. UVa-Wise begins their season this weekend with road matches against Tusculum on Saturday and Carson-Newman on Sunday. The Cavs will commence conference play on March 8 at home against Fairmont State.

Three-time defending Mountain East Conference champion West Virginia Wesleyan is the favorite to once again land atop the league standings. In addition to at least a share of the last three league standings, the Bobcats have taken each of the last two tournament championships. The Bobcats had 49 points with seven first-place votes.

Maycon Santos Dias, the conference Player and Freshman of the Year in 2018, leads the way this season for WVWC. Lukas Liapold, Harry Simaioforidis and Alexander Lyudinovskiy were all key players for last year's squad who are in the lineup again for head coach Marc Walters. Newcomer Carlos Dodero is off to a strong start in his first season at WVWC winning three times in the top flights the West Liberty Invitational, the I-79 Challenger, and the Bobcat Fall Challenger.

The University of Charleston was picked second in the poll with 42 points and had the remaining first-place vote. The Golden Eagles have four All-MEC performers back this season in first-team picks Ben Lakeman and Joao Tayar and second-team performers Thomas Andrews and Alek Gracin.

West Liberty was third slotted third in the poll 38 points. The Hilltoppers will rely Camilo Moncayo to lead a youthful squad that has five underclassmen (four freshmen). Lucas Alves was a first-team All-MEC player last year and will be atop the lineup for a Fairmont State team that was picked fourth in the poll with 30 points. Shepherd was fifth in the poll (23) points and are led by junior Carter Davis, a first-team All-MEC selection in 2018. Concord was predicted to finish sixth with 17 points, while UVa-Wise (14) and West Virginia State (11) rounded out the poll.

The top six teams in the regular season advance to the MEC Tournament that will be held May 3-5 at the Brian David Fox Tennis Center in Huntington, W.Va.