Asbury on top of River States Conference Men's Tennis Preseason Poll for 2016-17
FLORENCE, Ky. -- Asbury (Ky.) University is on top of the River States Conference Men's Tennis Preseason Coaches' Poll for the 2016-17 season. The Eagles received the most votes in the polling of the RSC's six men's tennis head coaches to edge out IU Southeast, which finished second.
Asbury is currently ranked just outside the NAIA Men's Tennis Top 25 Poll as the Eagles are in the "others receiving votes" section and just outside the rankings at No. 27 overall in the country for the Feb. 28 poll. Asbury received 24 points in the RSC poll and earned four of the six first-place votes.
IU Southeast was a close second to Asbury in the RSC preseason poll with 21 points and the other two first-place votes. The Grenadiers won the conference tournament last year, the last season it was known as the KIAC championship. IU Southeast topped Asbury in the finals, 5-2, and those two programs are predicted atop the standings again this preseason.
Asbury has many players returning from last years team, and the Eagles had the best showing at the River States Conference Individual Tournament held on their campus in October 2016. There, Asbury had Joshua Turnquest, Joshua Abraham and Julian Tellez finish 1-2-3 in one of the singles draws. In another singles draw, Ty Abraham and Deuce Gibson finished first and second for the Eagles.
IU Southeast's Daulton Fensler won the remaining singles draw at the RSC Individual Tournament this past fall. The Grenadiers also won one of the two double draws with Fensler and Bryson Mills coming out on top in that one. The other doubles draw was won by Asbury.
IU East is picked third in the RSC preseason poll with 17 points, and Brescia (Ky.) University is picked fourth with 14 points. The Red Wolves and Bearcats were conference tournament semifinalists a year ago, but they lost to IU Southeast and Asbury, respectively.
Ohio Christian University is picked fifth with nine points as a new team to the conference this year, and Alice Lloyd (Ky.) College is picked sixth with five points.
Of significance is that now with six teams competing in RSC Men's Tennis, the conference tournament champion will receive an automatic bid to the NAIA Men's Tennis National Championship. Previously with less than the required six teams for an NAIA auto bid, the conference needed to participate in Unaffiliated Conference Tournaments to qualifiy on to nationals.
The River States Conference Men's Tennis Tournament will be April 28-29 at Elizabethtown, Ky. The NAIA Men's Tennis National Championship is May 16-20 in Mobile, Ala.
RIVER STATES CONFERENCE MEN'S TENNIS PRESEASON COACHES POLL 2016-17
First-Place Votes in Parenthesis
| School | Votes |
| 1. Asbury (Ky.) (4) | 24 |
| 2. IU Southeast (2) | 21 |
| 3. IU East | 17 |
| 4. Brescia (Ky.) | 14 |
| 5. Ohio Christian | 9 |
| 6. Alice Lloyd (Ky.) | 5 |