In common recruiting lore in collegiate sports, stories are told about coaches or players during a recruiting process. A coach might go to someone's house or school. A player might trend on social media or attend a skills camp. After the discovery, the player weighs their options and coaches try their best to sell their vision and one's potential. A recruiting team might take a flight or trip within the country while doing so.

The key phrase here is within the country. It's real and movie-like, but for the Morgan State tennis program; it's different. Coach Matthew Townes has built his program based mainly around international players and it has translated into huge upsets and domination in conference play.

For the Bears on the tennis court, it's all about the mileage.

Turkey, India, Ukraine, Colombia, Sweden, France, Nevada, California, and Maryland.

When the Bears are sweeping through the competition and in their books, it's mostly done with an international flare. Between the men's and women's teams, only three out of 12 players are from America. It's rare to see programs that are mostly filled with international players. So much so, the entire men's team is filled with international players.

For the men's team, if you approximate the flight mileage from their home city to Baltimore; the numbers are staggering. Arjun Ramakrishnan is from Chennai, India and he's around 8,500 miles away from home. The team brings heavy Indian flavor as Shrey Gupta and Nihit Rawal are also from India as well. Gupta is around 7,400 miles away from his home city as Rawal is 7,350 miles away from his home city. Oguzhan Ceylan is around 5,230 miles away from his hometown of Izmir, Turkey. Serhii Kharchev is from Ukraine, which is around 4,900 miles away for him. And finally, the player with the shortest time away from home is Sebastian Lopez. The Columbian is 2,400 miles from his home city of Bogota. If you round everything up, the team brings 36,000 total flight miles into play.

The women's team is slightly less, but the international flare is still there. Peggy Rooke (Sweden), Dana Santiago (Columbia), and Oriane Yehouenou (France) are the international players that are doing amazing things this season. On the American side of things, Averiana Mitchell from Las Vegas (Ariz.), Jourdan Wallace from Long Beach (Calif.), and Asmara Rose from Baltimore rounds out the U.S. portion of the roster. Adding all the miles together, the women's team has over 15,000 total flight miles. 

Overall, the program brings approximately 51,000 travel miles combined. The opportunity to get free education and play tennis on the highest collegiate level is taken advantage of in a positive light. Both teams are active in the classroom, ranking highly in total team GPA every semester. The different worldviews and experiences have definitely translated well on the courts.

For the women's team, despite missing the postseason this season due to NCAA sanctions, they swept through the MEAC Northern Division; a good way to compete coming off their historic 2018 MEAC Championship. Their 7-12 record was the second best in the MEAC. They picked up non-conference wins over La Salle and St Francis Brooklyn. The Lady Bears also played very close to Loyola, N.C. A&T and N.C. Central as well. But once conference play started, their rackets got hot and the Northern Division had no chance.

Speaking of conference play, the men's team has won their eighth straight Northern Division title. Before even proving their dominance again in division play, the Bears were busy getting wins over La Salle, Hofstra, Villanova, and Loyola during the non-conference slate. So hot, that Coach Townes' team picked up wins over Florida A&M, N.C. Central, and N.C. A&T during that span. And if you consider their conference play, the Bears went a combined 6-0 against MEAC foes.

It takes skill and dedication to coach both teams to undefeated reigns during conference play. As a former player and now coach at Morgan State, Coach Townes is building his legacy as one of the top tennis coaches in Morgan history. He's giving dynamic international players a chance at a good education as well as amazing tennis competition. It's more than the wins and losses, it's about growth as a tennis player, person and getting the degree. Coach Townes and his international recruitment are working.