ITHACA, N.Y. — Fresh off a successful start to the dual season, the men's tennis hits the road for a pair of matches this weekend against Mississippi and Clemson.
 
Cornell opened up with a 6-1 victory over Wichita State last Thursday at Reis Tennis Center. Sophomore Lev Kazakov, and freshmen Alafia Ayeni and Evan Bynoe each won both their respective singles and doubles matches against the Shockers, with junior David Volfson (No. 1 singles) and senior Daniel Grunberger (No. 4) accounting for the other points.
 
While the Intercollegiate Tennis Association national rankings only go 25 teams deep in the early stages of the dual season, both Cornell (No. 26) and Mississippi (No. 27) were ranked just outside of that window at the conclusion of the 2016-17 campaign. Scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Central time, this will be the first-ever meeting between the programs.
 
Ole Miss (5-1) started off with four victories before splitting matches at the ITA Kickoff Weekend. The Rebels lost, 4-1, to No. 17 Columbia in the opener before rebounding with an impressive victory by the same score against No. 15 Virginia. Gustav Hansson is 4-1 from the No. 1 singles spot, and the tandem of Fabian Fallert and Tim Sandkaulen is 4-0 at No. 1 doubles.
 
The match against Clemson (3-1) is scheduled for a 10 a.m. Sunday start at Furman's home, the Mickel Tennis Center in Greenville, S.C. The Tigers were in New York last weekend, defeating host Army West Point, 7-0, and Binghamton, 5-2. Simon Baudry is 4-0 from the top two positions in singles, and Yizhou Liu has an identical record from lower in the order. Clemson is 4-0 at No. 2 doubles to date.