HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Northern Kentucky's men's and women's tennis is set to take on nearby rival Wright State in the Horizon League opener on Saturday, March 23. The men will start the day off at 5 p.m. ET, with the women's match to follow. Both contests will be held at Five Seasons Sports Club in Crestview Hills, Kentucky.
The Norse men are coming off a successful road weekend, picking up 6-1 wins over Wooster and Niagara. NKU had an undefeated doubles outing, taking all six matches with
Aleksander Sadal and
Jorge Rodriguez Agudo leading the charge at the top of the lineup.
Nathan Schwartz made his debut at the No. 1 spot against Wooster and went 2-0 on the weekend with a victory out of the No. 2 singles spot against Niagara. The men enter the weekend holding a 4-6 mark, with Schwartz riding a four-match winning streak while Rodriguez Agudo has taken down his last three opponents.
Wright State's men are 7-11 and are looking to snap a five-match losing skid. In that span, the Raiders have not shied away from staunch competition, taking on Power Five opponents Louisville and Michigan State. Wright State and NKU have played a number of common opponents, with both losing to Xavier and Louisville while winning over Niagara. However, Northern Kentucky posted a 4-1 victory over Eastern Illinois, to which Wright State suffered a 4-3 setback.
The women sit at 4-5 and most recently fell to cross-river foe Xavier on March 8 with Maria Koo picking up NKU's lone point with a straight-set win out of the No. 2 singles spot. Koo has defeated her previous two opponents and boasts a 5-4 record, while Margita Sunjic, the two-time reigning Horizon League Player of the Year, is 6-3 on the season.
Wright State's women hold an 8-10 record this season, most recently dropping a pair of matches to Mid-American Conference opponents Ball State and Miami (Ohio). The Raiders were blanked at Ball State, a team that narrowly defeated NKU, 4-3, on Jan. 26. There have been other common opponents in the two teams' schedules as well, as both have defeated Saint Francis (Pa.) and Western Kentucky while falling to Xavier.
In last year's meetings, the Wright State men claimed a 7-0 victory over the Norse while the women edged NKU, 5-2.
