Kearney, Neb. - For a fourth straight fall, the Nebraska-Kearney tennis program will host the men's and women's ITA Central Regionals.

The women's event took place two weeks ago with the men's tournament this Friday-Sunday.  Action will be held at Harmon and Harvey Parks on Friday and then at Harmon Park over the weekend.

The tournaments are free and open to the public. On all three days, play begin around 8:00 a.m. and runs through the day.

To reach the National Small College Championships October 13-16 in Mobile, Ala., players need to win either the singles or doubles bracket at their regional site.

Regional brackets are determined the night before (Thursday) at a coaches seeding meeting.

The small college championships are comprised of the eight regional champions from NCAA Divisions II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community Colleges

Teams in attendance  at the Central Regional will be the Lopers, Colorado Christian, Colorado State-Pueblo, Colorado Mesa, Metro State and William Jewell, a new Division II school from Missouri.

Last year, UNK's Josh Raymond and Yeswanth Nadella took home the doubles title and made the trip to Alabama. The pair is looking for a repeat performance after being a top doubles team last spring.

The singles champ is also back in the form of Metro senior Lucio Cangiano. The runners up in both singles and doubles hailed from Western New Mexico, who is without a head coach and not in the field.

Prior to the tournament, UNK will dual Mesa on Thursday (1:00 p.m.) at Harmon Park.