Princeton University Athletics
Men's Tennis to Head to Houston Saturday
February 17, 2016 | Men's Tennis
In the first of two weekends in the South, the Princeton men's tennis team will have a challenging match Saturday at Rice in Houston.
The Tigers will then play next weekend at the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Ala., with a field that includes Alabama, Auburn, Boise State, Oklahoma State and South Florida. The bracket for that event will be announced Tuesday.
Princeton enters the weekend on an eight-match winning streak after sweeping through the ECAC Championship to its first tournament title in that event since 2001. In Wednesday's new ITA ranking, the Tigers made a four-spot jump to 41st, eight spots head of Rice and one of five Ivy teams in the rankings.
Though Princeton is 2-0 against ITA-ranked teams this season, Rice will be the highest-ranked team the Tigers have faced, at No. 49. The Owls have faced three ITA-ranked teams in their last five matches and went 2-1 in those contests, defeating current No. 33 LSU 4-3 on Jan. 31 and current No. 60 Cornell 4-1 on Feb. 5 before falling to current No. 20 Northwestern 4-1 on Feb. 6.
Princeton and Rice have never met on the tennis court, but the Tigers and the Owls do have a connection, with twin brothers Josh (Princeton) and and Zach (Rice) Yablon on each side.
|
Princeton at Rice |
 Princeton |
 Rice |
| 2016 Record | 8-2 | 7-1 |
| ITA Team Rank | 41 | 49 |
| ITA Ranked Players | Alex Day (123) | None |