ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's tennis team will have a chance to make a splash on the national scene this weekend at Reis Tennis Center, when the Big Red plays host to dual matches against Penn State and Northwestern — two teams placed in the top 30 of the Intercollegiate Tennis Assocation's national rankings.
 
Cornell (3-4) enters the weekend ranked 64th by the ITA, which is down one spot following last Saturday's narrow 4-3 loss to No. 50 Princeton at the ECAC Indoor Championships. Senior Sam Fleck and sophomore Chris Vrabel each won singles matches after the Big Red won the first two doubles matches to be completed. Vrabel and classmate Colin Sinclair are both 4-2 in singles matches from the Nos. 4 and 5 positions, and the trio of Fleck, junior Stefan Vinti and sophomore Bernardo Casares Rosa have two victories apiece from the top half of the lineup. Cornell is 11-8 in doubles, including an impressive 4-1 mark from the No. 3 tandem of Fleck and fellow senior Quoc-Daniel Nguyen.
 
The match against Penn State begins at noon Saturday. The 27th-ranked Nittany Lions are 3-5 in the early going, with three of their losses coming against team's in the ITA's top 15. Most recently, Penn State was swept in three matches against USC, Texas and California last weekend at the ITA National Team Indoors. Matt Barry is a team-best 5-1 in dual matches from the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 positions. Leonard Stakhovsky is just 1-6 from the No. 1 spot, but he is ranked 72th nationally in singles by the ITA. Saturday's match will be the 37th all-time between the programs in a series that dates back to 1926. Cornell leads, 25-11, including a 4-3 victory in the teams' last meeting on Jan. 20, 2013 at State College, Pa.
 
At 11 a.m. Sunday, 26th-ranked Northwestern (6-4) descends on Reis for the first time in its program history. The Wildcats have won their last four matches, including a 4-3 victory over No. 25 Harvard on Feb. 8. Sam Shropshire, who has competed exclusively at the No. 1 position in singles, is 6-4 and ranked 96th nationally. Strong Kirchheimer is tabbed higher at 64th with a 7-2 records, sharing the Nos. 2 and 3 positions with Logan Staggs (5-4). Northwestern is 13-14 in doubles, including a 5-1 mark from Alp Horoz and Mihir Kumar at the No. 3 spot. The Wildcats topped the Big Red, 4-0, in the programs' first clash on Feb. 9, 2014 in Evanston, Ill.
 
Both of this weekend's matches are free and open to the public.