The UIC men's tennis team will return to the courts after nearly three weeks off, with a pair of matches this weekend.  They will play their first Horizon League match of the season at Valparaiso Friday, and then return to non-conference play with a visit to Northwestern Sunday.

"These two matches against NCAA tournament teams will be a good test for our young team," said head coach Hans Neufeld.  Valpo and Northwestern faced each other in the first round of last year's national tournament, with the Wildcats earning a 4-1 victory.

Friday's match will begin at 3:00 pm at The Courts of Northwest Indiana, and Sunday's festivities will get underway at 6 pm at Combe Tennis Center on Northwestern's Evanston campus.  The Flames will look to build on a three match winning streak that evened their record at 3-3 on the spring season.

Last time they hit the courts, UIC swept a doubleheader from Elmhurst in dominating fashion, taking each match by a 7-0 score.  Several players saw action at different slots in the two matches.  William Wale won both of his singles matches 6-0, 6-0.  Christian San Andres only lost two games in his four sets, earning a 6-1, 6-1 victory in the opener and a 6-0, 6-0 shutout in the nightcap.  Carl Hedstrom and Niko Wasilewicz came through with the team's first two victories of the year at #1 singles.

San Andres leads the Flames with four singles wins.  Two teammates are right behind him with three each.  San Andres and Wasilewicz are on a three match winning streak as doubles partners.
The Flames have swept the doubles sets in three straight matches, but will be tested against nationally ranked duos twice this weekend.  Valpo's Charlie Emhardt and Jeffrey Schorsch are ranked 11^th by the ITA, and Northwestern's Strong Kirchheimer and Dominik Stary are 10-2 in doubles matches and rank 51^st.

Valparaiso is the preseason favorite to repeat as Horizon League champions.  They are 6-1 this spring following a doubleheader sweep of Xavier and Eastern Illinois last Friday.  The Crusaders lost just one match all day.  Schorsch, the two time Horizon League Player of the Year, is undefeated in six #1 singles matches this season.  Emhardt was on a winning doubles team against Xavier and became the first player in school history to record 100 doubles wins.  Chad Kissell (4-2 in dual singles matches) is ranked 113^th in singles.

"It is a challenge to play the reigning conference champ to open conference play," Neufeld said.  "I look forward to seeing the progress that we've made this spring and how well we compete."

The Wildcats enter the weekend on a three match losing streak after reeling off wins in their first 10 matches of the year.  The powerful squad is ranked 13^th by the ITA and the USTA.  Their last three matches, all against nationally ranked teams at the ITA National Indoor Championships, each came down to the last singles match being played.  Kirchheimer is 7-3 at #1 singles, while Konrad Zieba boasts an 11 match winning streak between #2 and #3 singles.  They are ranked 28^th and 40^th, respectively, in the ITA rankings.  Zieba and Sam Shropshire are 7-2 at #1 doubles in dual match play.  Northwestern is scheduled to take on Notre Dame Friday and Oklahoma State Sunday morning before facing UIC.

The Flames played both of this weekend's foes last season and came out on the losing end both times.  They dropped a 4-0 decision to Northwestern, and fell 6-1 to the Crusaders.  UIC has lost four straight matches to Valpo, following an 11 match winning streak between 2002 and 2013.  The Flames have never beaten Northwestern in 19 all time meetings.