Prairie View A&M men's tennis coach John Cochran said he is confident in his team's abilities heading in the home-opener against Jacksonville College, which begins at 1 p.m. Friday on the Tennis Courts.

Those familiar with the program will notice a change in the positioning and rankings on the roster. Newcomers Craig Wiltz and Jackson Varney have moved into the No. 1 and No. 2 spots held by Ronald Chidzikwe and Kristen Powell, giving the Panthers more depth and more flexibility in the roster as Cochran prepares to take the program to new heights.

“Craig is at one and Jackson is at two,” Cochran said. “We're just trying to get Jackson a couple of matches to get his confidence up, and then we will probably have Craig at two. But it gives us a new dynamic of bringing a lot more energy to the team. Guys are excited about where we can go. Last year we didn't have a winning record, and this year we're definitely going to have a winning record. We're looking for big things and looking to win conference.”

 The Panthers put forth valiant efforts in the MET Invite hosted by Rice and in a dual match vs. Texas Tech on Jan. 16 to start the season off. Both non-conference matches featured ranked opponents to help Prairie View A&M measure where it needs to improve at.

In the MET Invite Varney defeated Blake Wiggins of TCU 6-4, 6-4 then lost in the quarterfinals (6-2, 2-6, 6-2) to TCU's Will Stein. Then in the 7-0 loss to No. 29 Texas Tech, Varney went down fighting in a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Gabriel Dias. In the losses Cochran noticed a similarity.  He said his players didn't have the conditioning to sustain long rallies late in matches.     

“We've got the talent. I just told them that we don't want to get caught up where we are still conditioning in the middle of the season. We want to get fit now so we can win early and take the confidence into the SWAC season.”