Michigan to Welcome No. 9 Duke to Varsity Tennis Center

» No. 10 Michigan wraps up a four-match homestand to start the season on Saturday (Feb. 3), hosting No. 9 Duke.
» Kate Fahey and Bella Lorenzini enter the weekend with Michigan's longest active singles winning streaks, each having won six consecutive matches.
» Duke and Michigan are facing each other for the first time since Michigan carded a 4-3, come-from-behind win at Duke on April 6, 2016. U-M was down 3-0 in the match before winning the final four singles matches on court.

THIS WEEK
Saturday, Feb. 3 -- vs. No. 9 Duke (Varsity Tennis Center), noon

• Social Media: Facebook | Twitter
• Live Scoring/Video

The No. 10-ranked University of Michigan women's tennis team (3-0) completes a four-match homestand on Saturday (Feb. 3), hosting No. 9 Duke (3-0) at noon. Admission is free to all matches at the VTC.

WOLVERINE BITES

• Michigan is 3-0 on the season after sweeping a pair of weekend matches (Jan. 27-28) against Gonzaga (4-1) and Tulsa (4-1). As a result, the Wolverines punched their ticket to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship for the ninth straight season. The national tournament is set for Feb. 9-12 in Madison, Wisconsin.

• Since Michigan began dual-match play, junior Kate Fahey (3-0), senior Mira Ruder-Hook (2-0), sophomore Chiara Lommer (2-0), freshman Bella Lorenzini (2-0) and freshman Alyvia Jones (1-0) each sport perfect singles records. Michigan is 12-2 in singles play in dual matches this season.

• Senior Alex Najarian picked up her first singles win in dual-match action on Sunday (Jan. 28), winning in straight sets at No. 6 as the first singles match off court to even the score against Tulsa at 1.

• Duke (3-0) visits Ann Arbor coming off of victories against Fresno State and Washington in the ITA Kick-Off. The ninth-ranked Blue Devils feature four ranked singles players in No. 7 Samantha Harris, No. 58 Kelly Chen, No. 64 Kaitlyn McCarthy and No. 100 Meible Chi. Duke also has both the Nos. 1 and 2 doubles teams in the country, with Chen/Harris at No. 1 and McCarthy/Hamlin at No. 2.

• Duke is the first of two top-10 teams (No. 5 North Carolina) on Michigan's non-conference schedule. U-M will most certainly face at least one more top-10 team at next weekend's ITA National Team Indoor Championship.

• U-M has a pair of ranked singles players in Kate Fahey (No. 33) and Chiara Lommer (No. 74). The next set of singles and doubles rankings will be released on Feb. 7.

• U-M is 3-8 all-time against Duke, but the Wolverines came away with a 4-3 win the last time the two teams faced each other (April 6, 2016). Michigan fell in a 3-0 hole before getting singles wins from Brienne Minor, Kate Fahey, Alex Najarian and Ronit Yurovsky to rally for a 4-3 win. It was the first time under head coach Ronni Bernstein that the Wolverines came back from a 3-0 deficit to win.

• Michigan features a pair of Wolverines with double-digit singles wins in sophomore Chiara Lommer (16) and junior Kate Fahey (12).

• The duo of junior Kate Fahey (six straight) and freshman Bella Lorenzini (six straight) holds Michigan's longest active winning streaks in singles action.

• After picking up a pair of wins last weekend over Gonzaga and Tulsa, Michigan is now 118-10 at home under 11th-year head coach Ronni Bernstein. Michigan does not return home until March 25 after Saturday's (Feb. 3) match.

• The Wolverines will hit the road for the first time this season Friday-Monday, Feb. 9-12, traveling to Madison, Wisconsin, for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.

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 towards 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.