2016-17 Gonzaga Men's Tennis Schedule

SPOKANE, Wash.-Gonzaga men's tennis head coach Peter MacDonald announced the 2017 men's tennis dual schedule Thursday, and it's headlined by 11 home duals during the spring season.

Before the home matches start, Gonzaga begins the dual season with two in Seattle. The Bulldogs first play a neutral site contest against Utah State Jan. 21, and they'll wrap up their trip at Washington one day later. Both matches will take place at the Nordstrom Center on the University of Washington's campus.

The following week, Gonzaga will begin a six-match, six-week homestand by hosting Eastern Washington on Jan. 28. Idaho comes to town Feb. 4, and Sacramento State follows a week later on Feb. 11. The Zags will then celebrate President's Day on Feb. 20, welcoming Idaho State to The Stevens Center. After a bit of a midseason break, the Bulldogs wrap up the stretch with back-to-back matches against Radford and Air Force on March 9 and 10, respectively.

Just after their longest home stint of the year, they'll embark on their longest road swing of the season with five consecutive matches away from Spokane, three of which will take place during Spring Break March 13-17. Gonzaga will spend the week off of school in southern California, playing UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine with a day of rest in between each contest. The Zags then begin West Coast Conference play in the northern part of the state, playing at San Francisco March 25 and at Santa Clara one day later.

Gonzaga begins the home part of the WCC slate on March 31 by hosting San Diego, and BYU comes to Spokane a day later. Pacific Northwest foe Portland then comes to town on April 8, wrapping up the homestand. The next weekend, the Zags return to the Bay Area for matches at Saint Mary's April 14 and Pacific April 15, and they'll conclude the regular season at home against Loyola Marymount April 21 and Pepperdine April 22.

Should they end the year among the top six teams in the conference, the Zags will compete in the West Coast Conference Championships April 27-29. The location of that tournament is yet to be announced.

"It's a tough dual schedule, one of the toughest we've seen," said MacDonald. "It's going to be challenging, but it also presents opportunities to prove and improve our games."

The Zags have three more tournaments on the fall slate. They next head to northern California for the ITA Northwest Regionals. The regional championships are hosted this year by the University of California in Berkeley Oct. 13-17. For the weekend of Oct. 28-30, Gonzaga will remain in Spokane for the third annual Bulldog Classic, held at The Stevens Center on N. Superior Street, just a couple blocks east of campus. Gonzaga then wraps up the fall tournament season Nov. 11-13 at the Duck Invitational in Eugene, Oregon.

For the latest information on Gonzaga men's tennis, follow the team on twitter at @ZagMTennis or online at www.GoZags.com.