MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — With a 3-1 record to start the spring season, Middle Tennessee men’s tennis prepares for the ITA Kickoff Weekend against California on Saturday and either No. 8 Duke or No. 23 NC State on Sunday in Durham, N.C.

All four teams last season competed in the NCAA Tournament. Two of the four teams are ranked in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings with Duke at No. 8 and NC State at No. 23.

The Blue Raiders will play the Bears in the opening round on Saturday at 8 a.m. CT. The winner will compete in the championship against the winner of No. 8 Duke vs. No. 23 NC State on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. CT. The losing teams will battle in the consolation match at 8 a.m. CT.

MTSU is coming off a 6-1 win at Arkansas on Sunday, Jan. 21.

 For the second week in a row, the Blue Raiders have earned a Conference USA Athlete of the Week. This week’s winner was Shu Matsuoka. Matsuoka is currently 4-0 in singles and 3-0 in doubles to begin the season.

Freshman Jakub Kroslak was named CUSA Athlete of the Week the week before and is off to a quick 3-0 start in singles. As a team, MTSU is 18-5 in singles so far this season.

MTSU has an 8-1 record in doubles so far this season. Ondrej Horak and Leo Raquin lead with a 4-0 record each. The duo of Horak and Raquin are 3-0 on court No. 3.

Match Five: Middle Tennessee (3-1, 0-0 CUSA) vs. California (0-1, 0-0 PAC-12)
– Saturday, Jan. 27 at 8 a.m. CT
– Durham, N.C.
 
All-time vs. California
– Friday’s matchup will be the first meeting between the two programs.

Scouting the Bears
– California is 0-1 to begin the 2024 spring season. The Bears fell to Santa Clara 4-3.
– Cal returns seven players from last year’s squad.

Match Six: Middle Tennessee (3-1, 0-0 CUSA) vs. No. 8 Duke (3-0, 0-0 ACC) or No. 23 NC State (2-1, 0-0 ACC)
– Saturday, Jan. 28 at 12 p.m. CT or 4 p.m. CT
– Winston-Salem N.C.
 
All-time vs. Duke
– The matchup between MTSU and Duke would be just the fifth meeting between them. Duke leads the series 3-1. The Blue Raiders defeated the Blue Devils 4-2 last season in the first round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend resulting in the first win over Duke in program history.

Scouting the Blue Devils
– Duke has a record of 3-0 to begin the 2024 season defeating VCU, Princeton and NC Central.
– The Blue Devils return nine players from last season. The returners combined for 145 singles wins and 108 doubles win last year.
– Duke has a doubles team ranked No. 14 by the ITA: Michael Heller/Andrew Zhang. Pedro Rodenas is the only singles player ranked by the ITA and comes in at No. 21.

All-time vs. NC State
– This would be the sixth meeting between MTSU and NC State. The Wolfpack lead the series 3-2.
-Coach Borendame is 1-3 against the Wolfpack.

Scouting the Wolfpack
– NC State is 2-1 so far to begin the 2024 season. The two wins were against were 6-1 over Northwestern and 7-0 over Princton. In the last match, the Wolfpack fell to Harvard 6-1.
– The Wolfpack return seven players from last year’s team. The returners combined for 64 singles wins in 2023. In doubles, they combined for 69 wins last season. NC State adds three freshmen.
– NC State has two players ranked in singles by the ITA: No. 52 Joseph Wayand and No. 120 Robin Catry. The Wolfpack has a doubles paring of Joseph Wayand and Martin Borisiouk ranked No. 13 by the ITA.

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