Squad faces highly ranked Notre Dame

Two weeks after returning to campus, the IU men's tennis team finds itself immediately battling a familiar and difficult foe.\nThe Hoosiers jump into their spring season Saturday, when they take on the No. 34-ranked Fighting Irish of Notre Dame in South Bend for the seventh time this year.\nThe team match against the Irish will be the Hoosiers' first of the spring season. Head coach Ken Hydinger highlighted the importance of the duel as not only a good place to start, but a good way to start impressing the NCAA tournament selection committee a little early. \n"This would be a big win for us," he said. "Anytime you play a good team like this, it can be a potential positive toward the end of the season if you win. This could be a quality win."\nIU knows the Irish well.\n"We had a lot of matches against them in the fall," senior Ryan Recht said. "They are a very, very good team."\nThe Hoosiers and the Irish met in the ITA Midwest Regional six times this fall, with IU achieving a 2-3 record in singles play and a 1-0 record in doubles. Senior Jakub Praibis, who plays No. 1 for the Hoosiers, led the way in those contests, winning two of the singles matches and teaming with junior Dmytro Ishtuganov for the doubles victory. Praibis said the fall matches against Notre Dame and the fall campaign as a whole, was valuable experience for the team.\n"The fall experience is different, but very important," he said. "It was good for us to have a good fall, but now we will have more matches and the fall was just the beginning of that."\nIU will need all of that experience to compete with a highly ranked Notre Dame squad. The Irish boast two nationally ranked players, sophomores Steven Bass (No. 77) and Barry King (No. 113). In addition to those two, the Irish have three other players ranked in the top-25 in the Midwest Region. \nPraibis is IU's only nationally ranked player, at No. 90 overall. He is also ranked sixth in the Midwest rankings. Freshman Michael McCarthy is the next highest-rated singles player, at 26th in the Midwest. Praibis talked about the team match-ups.\n"They are a really solid team all the way down the line," he said. "They are good, but they aren't spectacular. We have to play our game to be successful."\nHydinger thinks the Hoosiers are ready.\n"Guys came back from break in good shape," he said. "We have been working hard, doing sprints to get ready. Right now, everybody is hitting the ball well. We just have to play good tennis."\nThe Hoosiers start at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Eck Tennis Pavilion in South Bend.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Eamonn Brennan at eabrenna@indiana.edu.