After beginning the season with two dominant wins over Ball State University and the University of Toledo, IU men’s tennis will travel to New Hampshire to battle Dartmouth University.
This marks the third consecutive year the Hoosiers have started the season 2-0, and IU Head Coach Jeremy Wurtzman said this team feels different.
“Every year it’s different,” Wurtzman said. “We won convincingly over a Ball State team, and that’s one of the strongest teams they have had.”
With the two wins over Mid-American Conference teams being at home, IU will now travel on the road the first time this season to challenge Dartmouth.
The Big Green defeated the Hoosiers in Bloomington last season.
This same Dartmouth team also made the NCAA tournament last season and was ranked as high as 18th in the country.
Wurtzman expects the match to come down to the wire.
“I expect it to be an extremely even match,” Wurtzman said. “The doubles matches are going to be the deciding factor.”
IU has had a great start to the season in doubles matches, going 4-0 in the first two competitions. If that continues on the road, Wurtzman said it will push IU over the edge to victory.
However, this meet is different than anything IU has faced this year. It’s the Hoosiers' first road contest as a team this season. In the fall, individual players traveled, but the whole team did not.
One particular challenge facing the Hoosiers istheir youth. Four of their 11 players are freshmen and more than half are underclassmen.
Wurtzman added that the freshmen might be able to swing away because they’re so inexperienced and haven’t gone through a road meet yet. This would allow them to treat it as a regular meet and not think of it any differently.
Another first for the Hoosiers this season is the start time — it will be the earliest they have started a meet since 2016, as opening serve is set for 10:30 a.m.
