ANDERSON, S.C. -- Anderson University head tennis coach Rodrigo da Silva is missing three starters from his men's team. But da Silva, entering his second season at AU, is confident his rebuilt men's team will be ready to face one of the most challenging schedules in school history. "We lost our No. 1, No. 2, and No. 4 from last year, but we have three new players who are very good," da Silva said. "I think we have a very deep team." The Trojans, 74-5 all-time in CVAC play, are once again favored to win the conference championship. Both AU tennis teams will open play Saturday against Shaw. The first match will start at 10 a.m. Three veterans - Andres Weisskopf (12-3 overall, 5-0 CVAC, Cuena, Ecuador), Carlos Sanches (13-6 overall, 9-0 CVAC, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and Srikrishna Ramanathan (12-2 overall, 5-0 CVAC, Chenna, India) - are expected to provide stability at the top of the line up. The newcomers are Stephan Fehske (Hagen, Germany), Jose Augusto Gaspar (Sao Paulo, Brazil), and Renato Assuncao (Sao Paulo, Brazil). "Andres has stepped up and is playing well," da Silva said. "Carlos played No. 3 and No. 2 last year. I hope he will stay at No. 2 this year. Krish had a great end of the season last spring. I hope he will stay at the top of the lineup." The Trojans have lost just two league matches in the last five years. "The goal is to win the CVAC again," da Silva said. "We're playing the hardest schedule ever. We're playing just one unranked team outside of the conference. The schedule will either make us or break us. If we can win a couple of those matches, we could break into the top 10." da Silva says three new players have made the Lady Trojans not only deeper but more competitive. "I am very excited about the women's teams," da Silva said. "We're going to be more competitive. We finished seventh last year. I think we've got a real chance to move up in the league standings." The top returnee and the lone senior on the roster is Tamra Lawler (Perth, Australia), who played 17 matches at the No. 1 spot last spring. Jessica McDonald (Jr., Awendaw, S.C.) won five matches at No. 2 last spring. The three newcomers are Anne Radford (Fr., Jaboticabal, Brazil) and sisters Lisa and Laura Gorman (Jonesborough, Tenn.). "We lost several close matches last year, and we had several matches that we could've made look better," da Silva said. "We were extremely young last year. This year there's much more experience. I like their attitude. They are learning to be more competitive."