KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan men's tennis team was selected to capture the Mid-American Conference (MAC) regular season and the MAC tournament championship in the 2016 MAC Men's Tennis Preseason Coaches' Poll. The poll is voted on by the MAC men's tennis head coaches.

The Broncos received 33 votes with six points going towards a first place vote, five for second place, etc. Last season's tournament champion Buffalo was picked second with 29 votes while MAC Tournament Champion runner-up Binghamton was voted to finish third with 21 votes.  Last season's MAC regular season champion Northern Illinois finished fourth with 19 votes, Toledo finished with 13 votes and Ball state with 11 to round out the poll.

“Northern Illinois and Buffalo have proven they can win and we still have a lot of work to do to be able to show that,” WMU head coach Dave Morin said. “The league is very balanced and I believe if we were to play the league multiple times this season the results would come out different every time.”

Western Michigan returns sophomore Maik Steiner, last year's MAC Newcomer of the Year and a 2015 All-MAC First Team selection along with sophomore Jefta Kecic, also a 2015 All-MAC First Team selection.  A native of Erbach, Germany, Steiner last year was 4-1 in singles play in the MAC, while adding a 29-11 overall record.  In doubles, Steiner was 2-1 in MAC play and 18-19 overall at No. 1 doubles. Kecic posted a 3-2 record in MAC play at No. 1 and No. 2 singles last season, including a 23-12 overall record.  Coming into the dual match season, the doubles duo of Kecic and senior Stephen Payne earned the ranking of 37 in the Oracle/ITA national men's tennis rankings distributed Jan. 5. Joining these three are seniors Andrew Cahn, Ruben Greiner and Jimmy Beckwith and junior Matt Hamilton. Others include sophomore Daniel Loebel and freshman Matej Svjetlicic, Eric Olivarez and Nick Schnobel.

The Broncos dual season starts on Monday, Jan. 18 as they host Illinois-Chicago in nonconference play starting at 1 p.m. at West Hills Athletic Club.