Michigan Heads West to Kick Off Dual-Match Play

» No. 17 Michigan opens up its season on the road against Washington on Saturday (Jan. 20).
» The Wolverines are coming off a 23-7 season (Big Ten runner-up) and welcome back a seasoned core led by four seniors.
» U-M features two singles players ranked in the top 20 nationally with No. 9 Alex Knight and No. 20 Runhao Hua.

THIS WEEK
Saturday, Jan. 20 -- at Washington (Seattle, Wash.), 5 p.m. PST | Live Scoring
Monday, Jan. 22 -- at Boise State (Boise, Idaho), 11:30 a.m. MST | Live Scoring

The No. 17-ranked University of Michigan men's tennis team kicks off the new season this weekend when they travel to the Northwest for a pair of matches. The Wolverines will kick off the dual-match season on Saturday (Jan. 20) at Washington, then will conclude the west coast swing on Monday (Jan. 22) at Boise State.

• Michigan returns eight letterwinners, led by four seniors from last season's 23-7 crew that advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Michigan's fourth-season head coach Adam Steinberg is seeking his first Big Ten title, which would be the first for Michigan men's tennis since the 1995-96 season. After tying for third place in 2015-16 and finishing second last season, the Wolverines enter this season ranked third.
• Michigan finished second in the Big Ten last season, going 10-2 in conference action and making an appearance in the championship of the Big Ten Tournament for the second time in program history.
• After going 11-3 in the fall season, U-M senior Alex Knight enters at a career-best No. 9 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) national singles rankings. Knight's doubles partner, Runhao Hua, opens the season ranked No. 20. As a doubles team, Hua and Knight open the season ranked No. 19 by the ITA.
• Wolverine Junior Myles Schalet is coming off a breakout 2016-17 campaign in which he totaled an impressive record of 22-9 in singles play and reached a career-best No. 59 ranking by the ITA (March 7).
• Along with their experience, Michigan also brings in four freshmen to the team, including Kristofer Siimar and Mattias Siimar, twin brothers from Estonia. Mattias compiled a 9-5 record in the fall season.
• U-M is 3-2 all-time against Washington. The teams last met in 2016, with Michigan claiming a 5-2 victory in Ann Arbor. The Huskies are coming off a season during which they went 12-11 overall and 1-6 in conference play (Pac 12).
• Michigan is 2-2 all-time against Boise State, defeating the Broncos last season in Ann Arbor, 5-0. The Broncos are coming off a 5-24 season, going 1-6 in Mountain West play.
• Michigan does not play at the Varsity Tennis Center until hosting No. 9 Florida on Friday, Feb. 9.

NCAA RULES
Each team match will be a contest for the best of seven team points. Doubles action will begin immediately with no warmup, so fans are encouraged to arrive on time for matches. In addition, each doubles match will be one set to six, with a tiebreaker occurring at 6-all. The team that wins two-of-three matches will secure the doubles point. Following a five-minute intermission, singles action will begin with each match worth one point toward the team score. There will be no-ad scoring in both singles and doubles action. In addition, there is to be no noise made between first and second serves this season as part of new ITA sportsmanship guidelines.