Looking to build on a strong fall season, IU will be traveling to North Carolina on Saturday for its first matchup of 2016.
But the competition should be stiff as No. 50 IU will start off against No. 10 North Carolina with potential matchups against No. 40 NC State and No. 25 Drake.
“It’s great to start the season with a top-10 opponent,” Volunteer Assistant Coach Sven Lalic said. “It’s a great match for us to see where we are at the moment and how ready we are. Honestly, I’m very confident in our team and I believe we can come out with a great result this weekend.”
The Tar Heels have already had two matchups in 2016. They won both of them, beating Georgetown 6-0 and North Carolina A&T 6-1 on Jan. 16.
Two of the Tar Heels’ players are ranked in the top 50: Ronnie Schneider is at No. 13, and Brett Clark is at No. 43 in the singles rankings, while IU’s Samuel Monette is ranked at No. 27.
“It’s going to be a battle. North Carolina is a great team,” sophomore Raheel Manji said. “But if we all show up I definitely wouldn’t rate us the underdogs. Going in I think we can definitely do it.”
Rankings aside, the matchup will be an interesting one for both schools, as players from both teams know each other outside of tennis.
Schneider, who graduated from Bloomington South, is a good friend of IU senior Chris Essick. And North Carolina’s Brayden Schnurr grew up and is good friends with Manji.
For Manji, he grew up in the small town of Pickering, Canada with Schnurr, who’s two years older. Since Manji then, Schnurr has been a role model, Manji said.
Manji would even receive huge bags of Schnurr’s clothes once he grew out of them. They also both won gold medals in singles at the Canada Games.
“We know the team decently well, so that can help us as well.” Manji said. “We have a better understanding of what to expect and we are just going to try and use that.”
