Indiana men’s tennis dropped their first match of the year at home to the No. 23 University of Louisville last Friday but bounced back on Sunday with a competitive win over Western Michigan University. Indiana currently holds a 9-2 record this season.
Despite the 1-1 record last weekend, the Hoosiers found themselves as the No. 52 team in the country this week by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
“We can’t always plan on winning the first match of the weekend,” head coach Jeremy Wurtzman said following the win over Western Michigan on Sunday.
Indiana only has one match to focus on this weekend as they take a trip to New York to play No. 24 Cornell University.
The Big Red brings an 8-1 record into the match against the Hoosiers, with their only loss coming against No. 14 Harvard University at the ECAC Indoor Championships.
“They’re a good team,” junior Jagger Saylor said after the match on Sunday. “Hopefully we can go out, compete at our best and get some wins.”
In only one of their eight wins so far this season Cornell has swept their opponent. The Hoosiers are likely to face another close match.
“It was a battle to tough it out,” Wurtzman said of the Western Michigan match. “It was good for them to get through.”
This will be the second match of the year against a top-25 opponent for Indiana after facing Louisville last Friday.
“Tennis aside, it’ll be fun to get to see a new place,” Saylor said. “We’re excited to hit the road.”
Indiana’s next three opponents all call the northeast home, Cornell this weekend, then Princeton and Yale the following weekend on March 3 and 5 respectively.
“We better hit the books, it’s going to be tough,” Wurtzman said. “In all seriousness, all three of those teams I think are NCAA level teams, it’s going to be fun to see what we’ve got.”
The Hoosiers match against Cornell is scheduled for Feb. 25 at 1:00 p.m.
