For most, spring in Evanston begins in late March.

But the Northwestern men’s tennis team started spring Jan. 8. The Wildcats crushed instate rival Illinois-Chicago (0-1) 7-0 at the Combe Tennis Center, winning their first match of 2006. NU (1-0) captured three doubles matches, grabbing the doubles point and six singles matches on the day to sweep the competition.

“UIC is not a very strong team, but that wasn’t the issue,” NU coach Paul Torricelli said. “The issue was getting a feel (and) getting comfortable playing a dual match.”

The Cats continue their season Jan 13 at Louisville, facing a Cardinals team that has been idle since October. Louisville, ranked No. 33 to start 2006, made the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year as an at-large bid out of Conference USA.

NU closes out the weekend with a Jan 15 road test against Ball State, an NCAA tournament-team last season.

“Ball State has probably the best team they’ve had in the last 10 years,” Torricelli said. “The same with Louisville.”

Reach Ben Larrison at [email protected].