Men’s Tennis

The Wildcats’ winter season begins in a whirlwind Sunday with two matches taking place 281 miles apart.

Northwestern’s long day begins with a match at No. 36 Louisville, a team that defeated the Cats 5-2 in their last meeting two years ago. Then the team will hop on a plane back to Chicago for a match against Chicago State at home.

Junior Konrad Zieba acknowledged the challenges that come with the schedule, but expressed optimism about NU’s chances.

“It’s definitely tough, especially first match of the year, having a doubleheader,” Zieba said. “But, hopefully we have enough rest and take care of business for both matches.”

The Cats come into this season at No. 26 and are led by a trio of juniors at the top of the lineup: Sam Shropshire, Strong Kirchheimer and Zieba.

Zieba went into the fall unranked and emerged with a 7-2 record and five wins over ranked opponents, along with a trip to the second round of the exclusive National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship. His success vaulted him to No. 16 in the country, highest on the team and third-highest in the Big Ten.

Shropshire and Kirchheimer are the other two Cats ranked in singles play, listed at No. 50 and No. 55, respectively. Additionally, the doubles team of Kirchheimer and senior Fedor Baev is No. 52.

Last year, Shropshire led the team at No. 1 Singles and earned the opportunity to play in the singles field at the NCAA Championships.

Coach Arvid Swan has not yet finalized a lineup for Sunday’s matches, however last year’s lineup often featured Shropshire at the top, followed by Kirchheimer, Zieba, senior Mihir Kumar, Baev and junior Alp Horoz.

The team’s experience will be one of their key assets this year as the upperclassmen will try to successfully lead NU through a schedule with 12 top-50 teams and six top-25 teams.

Sunday’s matchup against Louisville is the first match against one of those top-50 teams, and the Cardinals will have a lot of fresh faces after losing six of their top seven players.  

“Louisville is pretty tough,” Zieba said. “We definitely have a good chance of winning away on the road and they’re pretty hostile over there.”

Similar to Louisville, Chicago State’s roster is inexperienced, with all six of their players being either freshmen or sophomores. Five of the six are from outside the United States.

After finishing fourth in the Big Ten last year, advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament, and having all of their starters outside of UCLA transfer Logan Staggs returning, NU has high hopes for the upcoming season and their chances of navigating a tough schedule.

“To beat the top teams we have to focus on winning our doubles matches and staying consistent in singles,” Swan said.

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