Though the matchups for this weekend’s Sun Belt Conference tournament haven’t been released, the team’s seniors already know their game plan.

“Winning our first round match is the big goal,” senior David Bowman said. “We’ve never done that before, and we only have one more chance.”

The team’s four seniors – two on the men’s side, two on the women’s – have never advanced past the opening round of the tournament, which begins on Friday in Monroe, La.

The Sun Belt hasn’t released the tournament’s seedings, but coach Jeff True said he expects the Toppers (13-4) to receive a 7 or 8 seed, and the Lady Toppers (10-7) to be placed as a 10 or 11 seed.

“We always recognize the Sun Belt as being the toughest part of our schedule,” he said. “It’s a major challenge, a major hurdle to get over, but we’re definitely playing better than in past years.”

Senior Brittany Waiz said that the pressure to win a tournament match hasn’t affected her or fellow senior Holly Kell, but both are determined to advance in this year’s tournament.

“We didn’t come here expecting to win every single Sun Belt tournament,” she said. “But we really hoped to at least win a match. Now we’re kind of faced with the fact that this weekend, we could play the last matches of our career, and we aren’t looking forward to that.”

The Lady Toppers played only one Sun Belt opponent this season, losing 7-0 to Middle Tennessee State on April 4. The Toppers haven’t faced a Sun Belt foe this season.

Senior Chad True said that though both teams have struggled, they have enough talent to play well in the tournament.

“It’s pretty disappointing not to have won a match yet,” he said. “But I think we’re good enough that we could surprise some people this weekend.”

The Toppers have won nine of their last 10 matches, beating Lipscomb 5-2 on Saturday, and sweeping Cumberland (Tenn.) and Tennessee State 7-0 on Sunday.

After starting the season 0-4, the Lady Toppers got above .500 for the first time this season after also sweeping their weekend matches against the same teams, by the same scores.

The scheduled match against Belmont on Friday was canceled due to rain.

“This weekend set us up really well,” coach True said. “This is exactly how you want to get ready for your season finale, playing your best tennis of the season at tournament time.”

He said the tournament’s seedings should be released by Wednesday, but that the team’s preparation will remain the same regardless of who they face on Friday.

“We’ll just have to wait and see who we get,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter that much. We’ll just play like we’ve been playing the past few weeks, and hope that will be enough.”

Reach Sarah Hyman at sports@chherald.com.