ITHACA, N.Y. – Armed with a five-match winning streak, the men's tennis team shuttles off to the West Coast this weekend to compete in the BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge in Indian Wells, Calif.
 
The event takes place Friday, Saturday and Sunday, running concurrently with the BNP Paribas Open, which is a long-running ATP Tour Masters 1000 event and Premier Mandatory event on the WTA Tour. Eight men's teams have been invited to the collegiate event, which take place on the Indian Wells Tennis Garden courts.
 
The tournament format is a bracket, with unseeded Cornell (7-5) opening against third-seeded USC at 11 a.m. PDT on Friday. Other first-round matches on Friday are second-seeded Michigan vs. Arizona State at 8 a.m., fourth-seeded Cal vs. Purdue at 2 p.m. and top-seeded Baylor vs. Idaho at 5 p.m. If Cornell wins Friday, it will face the winner of the Michigan/Arizona State match at 11 a.m. local time Saturday while the losers would meet at 8 a.m. Sunday's schedule will be announced following Saturday's play.
 
The Big Red enters the showcase event on a roll, most recently defeating Clemson, 4-0, and Binghamton, 6-0, last Friday night at Reis Tennis Center. Add in victories over Brown on Feb. 17, Iowa (Feb. 24) and Colgate (Feb. 24), and Cornell has come back into the picture for NCAA tournament contention as it nears a demanding Ivy League schedule.
 
Junior Daniel Soyfer has singles victories in each of the Big Red's five straight team victories, primarily from the No. 3 position. The transfer from Wisconsin continues to lead the team in singles victories with an 8-4 mark, followed by junior Lev Kazakov (7-3 from Nos. 1 and 2) and Pietro Rimondini (5-2 from the lower half) – each of whom has won four straight. Sophomore Alafia Ayeni has posted a 4-3 record from the top spot in the absence of 22nd-ranked senior David Volfson, who continues to make his way back to form following an injury.
 
USC (8-5) is currently up to 16th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's national rankings after a 4-2 victory last Saturday at Utah in its Pac-12 opener. The Trojans boast seven entries in the ITA's top 125 in singles, led by Daniel Cukierman (6) and Brandon Holt (16).
 
While Cornell and USC have never met in a dual match, the Big Red has some experience with Holt, specifically. The Trojans' No. 1 defeated Ayeni, 6-4, 6-2, in a round-robin match at the the USTA Blizzard Wild Card Challenge in December, and he defeated Chris Vrabel '17 in a match at the National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships on Nov. 3, 2016.