Taking on the No. 2 team in any sport is never easy.

But then again, breaking long-standing school records isn’t exactly a walk in the park either.

Today, the women’s tennis team will battle No. 2 Notre Dame (18-1) in hopes of maintaining its six-match winning streak. The team enters play coming off of five consecutive sweeps, something that hasn’t been done by the team since 1987.

But even after adding two more sweeps to its resume, the formerly 4th-ranked Wildcats (13-3) dropped to ninth.

But today’s opponent isn’t an unranked hopeful that NU can easily sweep aside.

Today, the Cats face the Fighting Irish, a team that has recorded seven sweeps in its 18 wins this season.

Tension should be high, but junior Alexis Prousis said she and the team are more pumped for this match than they are worried about sustaining any records.

“We’re really excited to play Notre Dame,” Prousis said. “We’re in the same area and I think because we play them every year and we play them at regionals that we definitely get up for this match every year.”

While NU’s Indiana rival might be higher in the rankings, the Cats make up for it with its star singles players. NU has two in the top 25, No. 8 senior Cristelle Grier and No. 24 Prousis, while Notre Dame has none.

But for today, the players will look to push statistics and ideas of possible records to the back of their minds and concentrate on how today’s match will pan out.

“Obviously it would be awesome (to continue the sweeps),” Prousis said, “But we’re not going to think about it. We’re going to take every chance to win the match obviously and that’s the ultimate goal of every match. We just want to play well and be able to come out on top and win.”

Win or lose the Cats will leave Notre Dame and resume Big Ten play this weekend against Minnesota on Saturday and Iowa the following day.

Reach Diane Yamazaki at [email protected]