DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake University men's tennis team travels to Denver for a pair of matches this weekend as the Bulldogs square off against the Denver Pioneers on Friday and the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos on Saturday.
 
The Bulldogs are 12-9 this season and have won three of their last four matches. Vinny Gillespie earned his fifth MVC Athlete of the Week honor early this week after going a combined 4-0 last week. He began his week with a near perfect performance as he cruised past Nebraska's 6-1, 6-0 at No. 1 singles on March 22. Then at No. 18 Cornell, Gillespie extended his winning streak to five-matches with a 6-0, 6-1 trouncing of David Volfson, but the Bulldogs ultimately fell to the Big Red 4-3 on March 25. In doubles, Gillespie and Tom Hands secured the doubles point for Drake against Nebraska and Cornell and have improved to 7-0 this season together.
 
 
Denver has a 7-9 record and has won its last two matches, defeating UNLV and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last weekend. James Yannik leads the Pioneers with a 11-4 record and is on a five-match winning streak.
 
UCSB will travel to Boise State on Thursday before taking on the Bulldogs on Saturday. The Gauchos enter the weekend with a 9-5 record and beat Princeton, 6-1, in their last time out on March 26.
 
The Bulldogs will begin conference play on Saturday, April 8 when they host Southern Illinois and Illinois State.