University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's tennis coach Jeff Clark feels his Mocs are playing the best they've played all season.
It's a perfect time for that to be the case.
The Southern Conference tennis tournament begins today at the Champions Club. The UTC men (7-14) are scheduled to face second-seeded Samford at 10:30 a.m., and Clark's 14-7 team plays UNC Greensboro at 3 p.m.
Some or all of the matches could be moved, as thunderstorms are forecast for this morning. In that event, the matches could be moved to local indoor facilities. The first men's matches are scheduled for 8:30.
The UTC men lost 6-1 to Samford's Bulldogs on April 13, with John Peacey claiming the lone singles win. Lucas Plesky and Luke Saunders, who were named all-conference in doubles earlier this week, were victorious at No. 1, but the Mocs lost the doubles point.
The women fared much better in their match against the Lady Spartans on March 5, claiming a 6-1 win. They enter today's match having won five of their last six matches, their lone loss a 4-3 decision to top-seeded Furman.
Their most recent win, 5-2 decision over Samford last Saturday, clinched the No. 3 seed.
The Mocs have been led by Kayla Jones, who was first-team all-conference in both singles and doubles with partner Kelsey Coots, who was a second-team singles honoree along with Samantha Caswell.
"We feel like if we're in the top four of the league, we'd certainly be in the mix to win," Clark said. "We've positioned ourselves at three, and we'll take it.
"It's been a pretty competitive year for our conference. If you look one through eight, all the teams can play. Even the lower half of the conference played the teams in the upper half competitively, so we're not taking anybody for granted - certainly not Greensboro, who has a traditionally strong program.
"We beat them 6-1 at our place, and I hope we can do that again tomorrow."
Clark was excited about UTC hosting the conference tournament. This is the second time in three seasons that the Champions Club has been the SoCon tourney site. Clark's Mocs fell to Samford in the 2014 semifinals.
Now even more established as a program than they were two years ago, the Mocs feel good about their chances this weekend.
"I think our players are excited to play here in their hometown," Clark said. "We hope to have a lot of supporters come out just to see some great college tennis. There aren't too many events where the women and men play simultaneously.
"We're looking forward to this weekend."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfree press.com. Follow him at twitter.com/ genehenleytfp.