U-M Set to Take on Duke, UCF in College MatchDay

Thursday, March 1

Durham, N.C.

3:00 PM

Michigan

Duke

2/27/2018 4:54:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: TJ Garske

» No. 8 Michigan heads south to take on No. 10 Duke and Central Florida.
» The Wolverines will take part in the second-annual College MatchDay (March 3) at USTA National Campus and will be televised live nationally on the Tennis Channel.
» Senior Carter Lin heads into the weekend with a 6-0 record in singles dual-match play riding a team-high six-match winning streak.

THIS WEEK
Thursday, March 1 -- at #10 Duke (Durham, N.C.), 3 p.m.
Live Stats
Saturday, March 3 -- at Central Florida (Orlando, Fla.), 12:30 pm
Live Stats | Watch (TV: Tennis Channel)

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 8-ranked University of Michigan men's tennis team (8-2) will head south for two matches when it takes on No. 10 Duke (9-4) on Thursday (March 1) and Central Florida (4-2) on Saturday (March 3) in the second-annual College MatchDay hosted at the USTA National Campus. Saturday's match, at the only off-campus stadium in the U.S. built specifically for college tennis, will be televised live nationally on the Tennis Channel.

• The Wolverines are riding a season-high five-match win streak heading into the week. U-M collected home victories over Harvard, California (ranked No. 23 at the time), Memphis, and Western Michigan before defeating No. 17 Notre Dame last Friday (Feb. 23) in South Bend, 4-3. Michigan won those five matches with a total combined score of 20-4.

• Duke heads into Thursday riding a three-match win streak, including a Saturday (Feb. 24) doubleheader sweep over Coastal Carolina and Furman, winning both matches by scores of 4-0. The Blue Devils earned a trip to the ITA National Indoors after they defeated Louisville and San Diego at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend in Fort Worth, Texas. Duke went 1-2 at the Indoor Championships held in Seattle, Washington, falling to No. 2 Ohio State and No. 10 Illinois before a 4-3 win over No. 22 Notre Dame.

• Michigan and Duke have met 15 times, with the Blue Devils holding a 9-6 edge over the Wolverines. The two programs last met Feb. 7, 2016, in Ann Arbor, with U-M coming out victorious by a 7-0 score. Current seniors Alex Knight, Davis Crocker, Runhao Hua and Carter Lin earned singles victories in the win.

• Duke currently boasts two singles players ranked in the top 125 nationally. Nicolas Alvarez is No. 32, while Catalin Mateas comes in at No. 92.

• After dropping its first two matches of the season, Central Florida heads into the weekend riding a four-match win streak. The Knights claimed victories over UC Davis, Auburn, North Florida and Stetson, winning the four matches by a combined score of 21-5.

• UCF's No. 80-ranked Alan Rubio and Mikhail Sokolovkiy head into the match riding team-high four match win streaks with 4-0 and 4-2 records, respectively, while the doubles duo of No. 23-ranked Korey Lovett and Eero Vasa are a perfect 5-0 in dual match play.

• Michigan and Central Florida have only met one time, with U-M defeating the Knights in 1998.

• U-M senior Carter Lin is now 6-0 in his singles matches on the season after defeating Notre Dame's Tristan McCormick in straight sets this past Friday (Feb. 23). The veteran is riding a team-high six-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.

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.