Feb. 21, 2008

EVANSTON, Ill. -- With 11 non-conference duals under their belts, the Wildcats will open the Big Ten schedule at 5 p.m. Friday at Michigan's Varsity Tennis Center. Northwestern is 6-5 entering the conference slate while No. 19 Michigan is 5-1 on the year with its only loss coming against No. 1 Virginia.

Live Scoring and Video at Varsity Tennis Center
Live scoring and video is available at Michigan's Varsity Tennis Center and can be accessed by clicking here.

Last Time Out
NU split a pair of contests last weekend at the Combe Tennis Center, defeating Dartmouth in dramatic fashion on Saturday before falling to Arizona State on Sunday. On Saturday, freshman David Seyferth was the last Wildcat on the courts and delivered the clincher in the Wildcats 4-3 win by taking No. 6 singles, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3. Northwestern captured the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 2.

On Sunday, Northwestern fought hard in doubles and took sets in three singles matches, but fell 6-1 to Arizona State. Alex Sanborn won the 'Cats' lone point at No. 2 singles in a match that could not have been any closer with two tiebreak sets and a match tiebreaker.

Scouting the Wolverines
Michigan is 5-1 on the year and features the 11th-ranked doubles team in the nation in Matko Maravic and George Navas. The pair is undefeated in duals. The Wolverines' No. 3 doubles team of Chris Madden and Andrew Mazlin is also undefeated in duals.

Northwestern Notes
• The Wildcats sport records above .500 at three spots in the lineup. The Wildcats are 7-4 at No. 4 with Sanborn posting a 3-0 record in that slot and are 6-5 at No. 2 where Alexander Thams is 5-5 on the year.

• Northwestern is 18-15 overall in doubles matches in dual play. The team of Rispoli and Thams are 8-3 at No. 2 and are riding a three-match winning streak.

• Sanborn has won his last two matches. He has played at No. 2, 3 and 4 this season. He is 1-1 at No. 2 singles, 5-1 at No. 3 and 3-0 at No. 4.

• Northwestern head coach Arvid Swan is returning to his alma mater for this contest. Swan was a four-year letterwinner for the Wolverines from 1995-98.