Wolverines to Travel to No. 17 Notre Dame

» No. 12 Michigan will travel to South Bend, Indiana, to take on the No. 17-ranked Fighting Irish.
» Senior Alex Knight is currently ranked No. 5 nationally in the ITA singles rankings, while coming in at No. 8 in doubles alongside classmate Runhao Hua.
» Freshman Mattias Siimar went 4-0 this past Sunday, winning both singles and doubles matches.

THIS WEEK
Friday, Feb. 23 -- at Notre Dame (South Bend, Ind.), 5 p.m.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 12-ranked University of Michigan men's tennis team (7-2) will hit the road on Friday (Feb. 23) when it squares off against No. 17 Notre Dame.

• The Wolverines are riding a season-high four-match win streak. After losing to then No. 11 Florida, U-M collected home victories over Harvard, California (ranked No. 23 at the time), Memphis and Western Michigan. Michigan won those four matches in dominant fashion, with a total combined score of 16-1.

• Following a 7-0 start, Notre Dame has dropped its last three matches, all of them at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Team Indoor Championship this past weekend. The Fighting Irish were shut out against No. 6 North Carolina on Friday (Feb. 16) before suffering consecutive 4-3 losses at the hands of No. 15 Florida on Saturday (Feb. 17) and No. 13 Duke on Sunday (Feb. 18), respectively.

• Michigan and Notre Dame have faced two common opponents this year -- North Carolina and Florida -- and both are 0-2 in those matches. The Wolverines lost both matches, 4-2, while the Fighting Irish lost to North Carolina by a score of 4-0 and dropped a closely contested 4-3 match against Florida.

• The Irish currently boast two singles players ranked in the top 125 nationally; junior Alex Lebedev is No. 35, while freshman Richard Ciamarra is No. 125. Notre Dame's doubles pairing of senior Brendon Kempin and freshman Tristan McCormick is No. 28 in the ITA doubles rankings.

• The programs are no strangers to each other, as Friday's match will mark the 77th time that U-M will face Notre Dame in dual-match play. The Maize and Blue holds a 44-32 lead in the all-time series, but the Fighting Irish have had the upper hand recently, winning last four contests. The latest edition of this series came in Feb. 13, 2016, when Notre Dame emerged victorious by a score of 6-1 in South Bend, Indiana.

• U-M senior Carter Lin is now 5-0 in his singles matches on the season after defeating Western Michigan's Lenhard Haupt in straight sets this past Sunday (Feb. 19). The veteran is riding a team-high five-match win streak.

• For yet another week, U-M senior Alex Knight is ranked in the top five nationally by the ITA, coming in at No. 5. On the doubles side, Knight and his usual partner Runhao Hua moved up one spot from No. 9 to No. 8, while Hua is No. 33 nationally in singles.

• Wolverine freshman Mattias Siimar won all four (two singles and two doubles) matches on Sunday. The rookie improved his record to 5-1 in singles and 4-2 in doubles in dual-match play this season. He also carries a three-match win streak in singles play.

NCAA RULES
Each team match will be a contest for the best of seven team points. Doubles action will begin immediately with no warmup, so fans are encouraged to arrive on time for matches. In addition, each doubles match will be one set to six, with a tiebreaker occurring at 6-all. The team that wins two-of-three matches will secure the doubles point. Following a five-minute intermission, singles action will begin with each match worth one point towards the team score. There will be no-ad scoring in both singles and doubles action. In addition, there is to be no noise made between first and second serves this season as part of new ITA sportsmanship guidelines.