JACKSON, Miss.- The Belhaven men's and women's tennis teams are ready to kick of the 2012 Southern States Athletic Conference Championships in Montgomery, AL Friday morning. The Blazers are making their second conference tournament appearance since Belhaven entered the SSAC two years ago.

The Belhaven men managed a 3rd seed in the conference tournament after finishing the regular season with a 14-2 overall record. The Blazers, who are currently ranked 15th overall in the latest Top 25 Coaches' Poll, drew the University of Mobile in the opening round of the SSAC tourney at 9:00 AM. The Blazers will rely on great team play and individual showings from top performers such as Daniel Duarte, David Mejia, Jefferson Nino, and Daniel Prado. This will be the third meeting between two teams with Belhaven taking the previous two matchups 6-3 and 8-1.

The Rams, who finished the regular season with an overall record of 6-4 and 2-2 in SSAC play, come into the tourney as a number six seed against the Blazers.

The Belhaven women enter the tournament as the sixth seed with an overall season record of 14-6 and 3-1 in SSAC play. The Blazers, who landed in the receiving vote's category in the latest Top 25 Coaches' Poll, will take on ninth ranked William Carey Friday at 11:30 AM. This will be the Blazers second chance against Carey as the Blazers fell earlier in the season to the Crusaders 8-0. Belhaven will depend on great play from some of its top individual performers; Savannah Zachry, Natalia Krier, Mary Carole Kiewit and Ana Arreygue.

William Carey enters the tournament as the three seed and has an overall ranking of 9th in the NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll. William Carey has an overall season record of 13-8 and finished in 1st place in the SSAC West Division with a record of 4-0.