Huskers End Regular Season on Home Court

Lincoln --- The No. 74 Nebraska men's tennis team hopes to end the regular season on a high note as it looks to snap a four-match conference losing streak this week when it takes on No. 10 Texas Tech on Friday, April 22, at the NU Varsity Courts. The match will begin at 2 p.m. and admission is free. The Huskers, who remained in the national ITA poll for the 12th consecutive week, are looking for their first Big 12 Conference victory of the season and a chance to gain momentum heading into next weekend's Big 12 Championships.

The Huskers will have a tough task ahead of them as the Red Raiders are ranked No. 10 in the nation this week after dropping a 7-0 contest to Baylor last weekend. TTU is 21-2 on the season and 4-2 in the Big 12 standings with their other loss coming against Oklahoma State, 6-1.

Nebraska has faced nine ranked opponents already this season, with their lone victory coming in the season opener with a 4-3 victory over then-No. 16 Rice. The Huskers are facing their sixth straight ranked foe, including each of the past four ranked in the top 50. Overall, Nebraska is 0-3 against top-25 programs this spring, all in league play. In fact, all seven teams in the Big 12 Conference that support men's tennis are ranked in the ITA poll, including: No. 1 Baylor, No. 10 Texas Tech, No. 14 Texas A&M, No. 15 Oklahoma State, No. 32 Texas, No. 47 Oklahoma, No. 61 Colorado and No. 74 Nebraska.

Texas Tech enters the final matchup before the conference championships with the second-best record in the league, trailing only the 24-0 and No. 1-ranked Baylor Bears. The Red Raiders were swept by the Bears in their last contest, snapping a TTU four-match win streak. Texas Tech opened the season with 17 straight victories and reached their highest ranking in school history at No. 9 last week.

The Red Raiders are led by Radoslav Nijaki, who is ranked No. 14 nationally in singles. Nijaki has posted a 10-3 spring record at the No. 1 singles position, and has teamed with Bojan Szumanski for a 3-3 doubles record at the top slot. Szumanski is the only other Red Raider in the ITA rankings, as he sits at No. 40 this week. Szumanski owns a 14-2 overall spring singles record, including an 11-2 mark at the No. 2 position. Jakob Paulsen rounds out a strong 1-2-3 punch, as he is 10-7 on the year, including a perfect 5-0 mark at the No. 1 position.

Adrian Prpic leads the squad with an 18-2 spring record at four positions. Prpic is 3-0 at both the No. 2 and 4 slots and owns a 4-1 record at the No. 5 position. He is 8-1 at No. 6 singles.

Following this weekend's action, the Huskers enter the Big 12 Championships on Friday, April 29. Texas will play host to the championships in Austin.

Nebraska Continues Run in National Poll
The Cornhuskers remained in the ITA poll for the 12th straight week despite falling to No. 74 nationally on April 19. The 11 straight weeks in the national poll is NU's longest run since at least 2000.

The Huskers moved up for two straight weeks before falling six notches to No. 66 on March 29. Nebraska's highest ranking this season came on Feb. 1 when the Huskers entered the poll at No. 55. The next ranking will come out on April 19.

Nebraska was ranked once last season when it came in at No. 75 for one week. Before that, NU's last appearance in the ITA national rankings came in 2002 when the Huskers spent eight weeks ? including seven consecutive ? in the poll and finished the year at No. 72.

Clow and Szatmary Continue Winning Ways
The tandem of James Clow and Adrian Szatmary has become a dominant force for the Huskers in doubles play this season. The duo owns a team-best 8-2 record this spring in doubles action, all at the No. 3 slot.

Clow and Szatmary picked up their first Big 12 victory of the year with an 8-6 win over Oklahoma's Ivanov and Chavarria on April 9 and have since added two more league wins to pace the Huskers. The twosome netted a 9-7 victory over Texas A&M's Matt Bain and Jerry Makowski and a 9-8 win over Texas's Luis Diaz Barriga and Garrett Snyder last weekend.

Clow and Szatmary have won eight of the Huskers' 23 doubles matches this spring, including picking up eight of the team's 11 wins at the No. 3 position. No other Husker tandem has won a match in league play and only one duo ? Jerry Posch and Joel Reckewey (5-9 record) ? have at least five victories this spring.

Net Notes
Senior Jose Rivera leads the Huskers with 15 wins this spring, including 13 dual match singles wins...the 15 wins are just two off Rivera's career spring total (three years) entering this season...sophomore James Clow has 13 singles wins this season to rank second on the team, after posting just eight victories as a rookie last year...Clow has the Huskers' best record at the No. 2 singles slot in 2005 with a 6-2 mark...Clow is also tied with junior Joerg Barthel for the team lead with two Big 12 singles wins apiece...Barthel, who has battled injuries again this year, is 2-4 in league play.