EVANSTON, Ill. – No. 12 Northwestern men’s tennis will head to New York for a matchup with Columbia on Friday, March 3 at 5 p.m. CT before traveling to New Jersey to take on Princeton on Sunday, March 5 at 11 a.m. CT.
Last weekend, the ‘Cats hosted a trio of opponents at Combe Tennis Center, defeating two of them. On Friday night, the ‘Cats fell 4-1 to Memphis, with Presley Thieneman earning the lone Northwestern win of the match, a 6-2, 6-2 win at #4 Singles. NU rebounded on Sunday, first downing Vanderbilt 4-1 behind wins from Ivan Yatsuk, Simen Bratholm, Trice Pickens, and Gleb Blekher. Northwestern followed up its win over Vanderbilt with a 4-0 sweep of crosstown rival UIC. Northwestern earned the doubles point behind wins from Blekher/Yatsuk and Felix Nordby/Natan Spear. Bratholm, Blekher, and Spear all made quick work of their opponents to clinch the match for Northwestern and secure a 2-1 weekend.
In the most recent ITA Team Rankings, Northwestern moved up one spot to No. 12 nationally. In addition to the No. 12 team ranking, Steven Forman appears at No. 50 in the ITA Singles Rankings and Bratholm/Yatsuk rank No. 54 in the ITA Doubles Rankings.
With the match on the line, no Wildcat has been more clutch this season than Gleb Blekher. The Junior has won five singles matches this season, with four of those wins clinching a match victory for the Wildcats.
Columbia enters Friday’s match one spot ahead of Northwestern at No. 11 in the ITA Team Rankings. The Lions are 6-1 on the season, having split a pair of matches with Harvard. Four Lions are ranked in the ITA Singles rankings, led by No. 8 Michael Zheng. The doubles pairing of Max Westphal and Theo Winegar appears at No. 11 in the ITA’s Doubles Rankings. There will be no live stats or live stream for the Columbia match.
Princeton, who is currently 6-7, will square off with Buffalo and Indiana on Friday before battling NU on Sunday. The Tigers are ranked No. 69 in the ITA Team Rankings and have won four matches in a row heading into the weekend.
Northwestern returns home to Combe Tennis Center on Thursday, March 9 at 6 p.m. CT for a contest with MTSU. Admission at Combe Tennis Center is free to all fans all season long.
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