UIC's men's tennis team will return to the courts after an off week, as they travel to Wright State and Northern Kentucky for a pair of matches this Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

The weekend's matches could prove crucial in determining who qualifies for the Horizon League tournament and who stays home.  The Flames (5-8, 0-3 HL), Raiders, and Norse; along with Detroit Mercy, are all within one game of each other in the fifth through eighth spots in the league standings.  Only the top six teams at the end of the season advance to the tournament.

The Flames fell to Youngstown State last time out, following a loss to Cleveland State the day before.  Both matches were closer than the scores would indicate, as UIC pushed four of six singles matches to a third set against the Vikings, and tied the Youngstown State match at 2 before the Penguins pulled away.

Niko Wasilewicz got the win at #2 singles against Youngstown State, evening his record at 6-6 this season.  He trails only Christian San Andres for the most wins on the team.  San Andres has won four in a row and is 8-4 overall.

UIC's doubles teams had a rough time in the last two matches as they were unable to claim victory in any sets.  This followed a reshuffling of the pairings that resulted in two straight 3-0 sweeps in the doubles sets at the beginning of March.  "Doubles can really set the tone for us," head coach Hans Neufeld said.  "When we perform well in doubles, we carry that energy over into the singles matches.  I thought we did a good job rebounding from the doubles losses [two weekends ago] to perform well in singles; now we just need to put it all together."

Wright State defeated Rose-Hulman on Sunday to run their record to 4-15.  The Raiders cruised to a 2-0 doubles win, and then won singles matches at numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5 for a 5-2 victory.  Winless in conference play at 0-3, Wright State is led in singles play by Donovan Cellupica, who has six wins.  Marcel Ueltzhoeffer has come on in conference play after not playing in the early part of the season.  He has a 2-0 singles record and is the only Raider with multiple Horizon League wins.

Northern Kentucky stands at 5-5 overall and 1-2 in Horizon League play after a 5-2 loss to Youngstown State on Sunday.  The Norse captured a couple of wins down in the singles lineup, as Adrian Isache at #5 and Blaine Carr at #6 came through with NKU's two points.  Mate Virag, a two time Horizon League Player of the Week, has a 6-4 record at #1 singles.

Northern Kentucky ended UIC's season last year with a 4-2 win in the Horizon League tournament, but the Flames have won the most recent regular season meetings against both of this weekend's foes.

The trip to the southwest Ohio/north central Kentucky area will be UIC's last road trip of the regular season.  Four straight home matches await the Flames over the remainder of the month, leading into the Horizon League tournament in Ann Arbor, Mich. at the end of April.