Fresh off a split at the ITA Kickoff Weekend, coach Arvid Swan and Northwestern’s men’s tennis have three more opponents in their sights.

The Wildcats’ (5-2, 0-0 Big Ten) first visitors to the Combe Tennis Center will be Princeton (1-2, 0-0 Ivy League). Both of the Tigers’ losses so far have been to ranked teams, and coach Billy Pate is one of the longest-serving coaches in all of collegiate tennis. Swan, who considers Pate a close friend, praised the veteran coach’s discipline and doubles acumen; the two also faced off multiple times when Pate was in charge at Alabama.

“He’s an outstanding recruiter,” Swan said. “He’s had a lot of very good teams over the course of his career. Utter respect for him professionally, but I also really like him as a person too.”

The Cats have another connection to Princeton’s coaching staff. Brett Forman, the older brother of NU senior Steven Forman, was a volunteer assistant coach for the Tigers in 2020.

Princeton has had mixed results in doubles, but their No. 2 duo of Ryan Seggerman and Will Peters are undefeated so far this season. The Tigers’ singles lineup is headlined by Seggerman and No. 26 Karl Poling, both seniors and former First Team All-Ivy League selections.

“It’s a really good one-two punch,” Swan said. “Both players (have) very different styles, but they pose a big challenge.”

The first of two opponents for the Cats on Sunday, Duke (3-1, 0-0 ACC), has faced NU every year since 2014. The Cats have won a majority of these contests, including the second leg of last year’s ITA Kickoff Weekend, when the Blue Devils found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-0 sweep.

Swan said he admired coach Ramsey Smith’s team’s composition.

“Obviously, they have a really good player at the top of their lineup, Garrett Johns has a lot of experience playing there,” Swan said. “But then you look at how deep they are. When you look at their four, five and six, all three of those guys have had unbelievable junior careers.”

Like NU, Duke also has two nationally-ranked singles players — Johns, No. 76 in the nation, and No. 38 Faris Khan. Both have 2-1 singles records in this season’s dual matches.

Johns and Sean Sculley, a pair ranked No. 39 in the nation, lead Duke’s doubles onslaught.

“Sculley is pretty dynamic on the doubles court, (Johns) does a good job of setting them up with specific plays,” Swan said. “They’re really good on serve, but they’re also good returning. They can play aggressively or they can back off and play a little bit defensively as well.”

Illinois-Chicago (1-4, 0-0 Horizon League) will conclude NU’s weekend slate. The Flames will play the Cats twice this season, just like they did in 2020.

Both of those matches resulted in 4-0 victories for Swan’s squad.

“They’re always one of the top teams in their conference,” Swan said. “We know that we’ve got to be ready to play, even though it’s our second match of the day.”

UIC has experimented with its singles lineup quite a bit already. Coach Hans Neufeld has deployed nine different singles players in this season’s dual matches. Pelle Strandberg, playing atop the order, has a team-best three individual wins so far.

After five matches, the Flames are winless in doubles competition. 

“We should be pretty focused at that point,” Swan said. “Our guys are capable of making good adjustments through the match.”

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Twitter: @NathanJAnsell

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