ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's tennis team will pay a visit to Big 10 Conference programs for a fourth straight year when it travels to the Great Lakes State for matches against Michigan at 5 p.m. Friday and Michigan State at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Cornell is coming off a split of its first two matches, which came last weekend at the 2019 ITA Kick-Off Weekend regional hosted by Ohio State. The Big Red's battle with Arkansas in Saturday's opening round went down to the wire before the Razorbacks prevailed, 4-3. The pairing of
Alafia Ayeni and
Eero Vasa clinched the doubles point for Cornell, then Ayeni and
Pietro Rimondini won in singles. The Big Red then dominated in singles the next day to defeat VCU, 4-1.
Michigan (1-2) sits 24th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's national rankings for a second straight week. The Wolverines also split a pair of matches during the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, starting with a 4-1 win against North Carolina State before falling by the same score the next day to Baylor.
The Wolverines have a nationally ranked doubles tandem – Andrew Fenty and Mattias Siimar (35th) – that is 2-0 so far in dual matches. They also compete at the top two positions in singles. Cornell is 3-5-2 all-time against Michigan, most recently suffering a 4-1 loss on Jan. 30, 2016 at the National Tennis Center in New York. Senior
David Volfson won in both No. 1 singles and No. 2 doubles that day.
Live scoring and free video feeds for the match against Michigan will be provided through its website, mgoblue.com.
Michigan State (4-3) is coming off a split on the road last Saturday, starting with a 4-3 win at Ball State clinched by Nick Williams' three-set victory at No. 5 singles. The Spartans then dropped a 4-2 decision later that night at IUPUI, with the points coming from singles wins by Billy Shisler at No. 3 and Anthony Pero at No. 6. The team is led in singles by Pero's 6-1 mark at No. 6 and Jack Winkler's 5-1 record at No. 1, though it is 3-14 in dual doubles so far. The Big Red has yet to defeat the Spartans in three meetings between 1991 and 2008.
The match against Michigan State will be streamed online. Live stats will also be available through MSUspartans.com.
