MTEN Preview: Northwestern, Wisconsin & Illinois
2/24/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
FORT WORTH, Texas - The No. 8 TCU men's tennis team is set to embark on a tough two-week road swing, starting with three matches against Big 10 opponents ranked within the top 40 this weekend.
The Horned Frogs (6-2) will open with No. 15 Northwestern (11-1) on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 6 p.m., in Evanston, Ill., before traveling to Madison, Wisc., to face No. 36 Wisconsin (6-0) for a match on Friday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. The road trip will finish up on Sunday, Feb. 28 with competition against No. 11 Illinois (6-4) at 1 p.m., in Champaign, Ill.
TCU Notables
TCU sits at No. 8 in this week's Oracle/ITA poll after sweeping then-No. 61 Cal Poly (7-0) last weekend. All eight opponents the Frogs have faced this season have been ranked within the Oracle/ITA poll top 75 and this will be the second time in two weeks that TCU will compete against two straight opponents ranked within the top 15 nationally.
Four players find themselves ranked in the singles poll this week with freshman Alex Rybakov making the biggest jump from No. 122 to No. 24. Cameron Norrie is now at his highest ranking of his career of No. 2, while Guillermo Nuñez checks in at No. 49. Eduardo Nava checks into the poll for the first time in his career at No. 99.
Rybakov leads all players in dual matches with a 5-1 record, while Norrie and Nava are right behind with 4-1 marks. Norrie and Rybakov have strung together three straight wins in singles action, with Norrie scoring eight wins over ranked opponents, while Rybakov is 3-1 against ranked opponents.
Scouting the Wildcats
Northwestern is off to its best start since the 1988-89 season and have won eight straight matches. The Wildcats have downed six ranked foes this season with their only loss coming to Illinois in the championship match of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend.
Northwestern has three ranked singles players in No. 8 Konrad Zieba, No. 73 Sam Shropshire and No. 107 Strong Kirchheimer. Zieba is 14-4 on the season, including a 6-2 mark at the No. 1 spot with an 11-3 record against ranked opponents. Kirchheimer leads all players with a 15-2 record, including a 9-0 record in dual matches with all the wins coming on court three.
Kirchheimer and Fedor Baev lead all doubles pairs with a 10-5 mark, including a 6-3 record on court one. Shropshire and Zieba hold the best record on the team at 7-1 with all dual matches played at the No. 2 position.
Scouting the Badgers
Wisconsin is also off to its best start in program history since 1990 and are undefeated on the season at 6-0. The Badgers come into the match after defeating Big 10 foe Minnesota (4-3) and DePaul (7-0) in its last two matches.
Josef Dodridge leads all players with a 14-8 record in singles action, including a 5-1 mark in dual action. Darius Mackenzie and Osgar O'Hoisin are also 5-1 on the season in dual matches, Alexander Kokorev is 13-4 on the season and it one of two players who are 4-1.
Jose Carranza and Jakhongir Jalolov are a perfect 6-0 in dual matches in doubles action with all competition being played on court two, while Doddridge and Lamar Remy have a 5-1 record at the No. 1 position.
Scouting the Illini
After starting the season 5-1, Illinois has lost three of its last four matches, including a 4-0 decision to TCU at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship two weeks ago. The Illini will face former No. 1 Virginia on Saturday before taking on the Frogs on Sunday.
Three Illini are ranked in the Oracle/ITA poll with two in the top 15 in No. 9 Aleks Vukic and No. 11 Jared Hiltzik. Aron Hiltzik rounds out the ranked players for Illinois at No. 66 in the singles poll.
All-Time Series
This will be the first time in program history that TCU and Northwestern have faced each other.
TCU and Wisconsin will be facing off for the sixth time in program history and second straight season. The Badger hold the slight edge in the series record at 3-2, but TCU won the last meeting just a season ago with a 6-1 decision in Fort Worth. The match on Friday marks the second time the teams have played in Madison, with Wisconsin winning the only other match played there in 2008.
TCU and Illinois will be playing for the ninth time in program history and second time this season, as the Frogs hold the slight advantage in the series record at 5-3. The teams last met during the regular season was just last year, as the Illini, then ranked No. 4 nationally, traveled to Fort Worth for a Monday afternoon showdown. TCU won the match decisively, 4-0, and Illinois became the first top-5 opponent defeated in the Roditi era.
Live Scoring/Video
Live scoring and video links of the match against Northwestern can be found NUSports.com, while live scoring of the match against Wisconsin can be found at UWBadgers.com. Live scoring and video links of the match against Illinois can be found at FightingIllini.com. Final results and a recap will be available at GoFrogs.com following the completion of competition on each day. In-match updates can also be found by following TCU men's tennis on twitter (@TCUMensTennis).
Players Mentioned
