Coach Jarrod Smith's Drury Panther tennis squads will kick their season off with a pair of home matches this weekend indoors at the Cooper Tennis Complex.

The defending Great Lakes Valley Conference champions and preseason favorites to repeat as West Division winners will play host to Washburn in an 8 p.m. non-conference match on Friday at Cooper before welcoming fellow GLVC member McKendree for a 10:15 a.m. start on Sunday.

Smith's DU men are ranked 15th nationally and No. 1 in the Midwest Region according to the ITA entering the season opener. Junior Maxi Hepp is the top-ranked singles player in the region and No. 18 in the nation, and, with freshman Kay Bartmann, forms the region's top-ranked doubles unit (and No. 4 nationally) as well. Sacha Mourier is No. 10 and Sebastien Amato No. 19 in the region's singles rankings as well.

On the women's side, Drury is ranked No. 30 as a team nationally and No. 4 in the Midwest Region behind Northwood, Indianapolis and Grand Valley State. Junior Lara Muller is ranked fifth and senior Hadeil Ali sixth in the region in singles, with Muller and Samanta Zambrano forming the No. 3-ranked doubles unit in the region.

Smith is in his 11th season of coaching the DU men and his fifth season of coaching the DU women as well. The Drury men finished 23-3 last season, ending with a loss in the NCAA-II Sweet 16 to Lander, while the Drury women were 22-3 and lost in the NCAA-II second round.

Both Drury squads have won seven of the last 10 GLVC Championships. The Drury men have qualified for the NCAA-II tourney field for 18 consecutive seasons, while the DU women have reached the national tourney field in 14 consecutive years.