WICHITA, Kan. — As a summer full of international competition continues, one of Newman's current student-athletes will be competing for his home country in his sport's top event.

Rising senior Alejandro Gonzalez was named to El Salvador's senior tennis team for this weekend's Davis Cup match against Venezuela, and the Jet tennis player will play a pair of singles matches as his team hopes to advance in the tournament.

The Davis Cup, which is akin to soccer's World Cup, is contested every year, and El Salvador is looking to climb its way into the highest level of the event. The country is currently competing in Group II in the Americas region, and is facing Venezuela in the semifinals of the event. The winner of the bracket will move up to Group I in next year's competition, and a top-two finish there pushes it into the World Group playoffs, a winner-take-all single match to be included in the top-level World Group in the following year.

That journey starts against Venezuela this weekend at Complejo Polideportivo de Cuidad Merliot in Santa Tecla, El Salvador. Gonzalez will face Ricardo Rodriguez Friday before closing out the competition Sunday against Jordi Munoz-Abreu. Each of those matches are worth one point in the best-of-five team scoring.