NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State men's tennis program officially begins its 2021 season on the road at Notre Dame Monday, as head coach Mark Klysner announced his 2021 spring schedule Sunday as his squad heads to South Bend to start things off.
"I am so excited to get back to action, as we haven't played a competitive match since March," Klysner said. "The guys have worked extremely hard preparing for this spring season and have stayed disciplined in trying to stay safe and healthy. We are thankful to be back on court and can't wait to play a nationally-ranked school like Notre Dame in a doubleheader to begin a competitive spring slate."
The Redbirds, who were ranked fourth in the Summit League preseason poll, open the spring season with 12 straight road matches. Doubleheader weekends at Notre Dame (Jan. 18) and Kentucky (Jan. 23) headline the beginning of the schedule and matches at Tulsa (Jan. 29) and Arkansas (Jan. 30) round out the first month of competition for ISU.
February will start with a doubleheader at Western Michigan (Feb. 6) and a contest against in-state foe UIC in Chicago (Feb. 7), before a pair of matches in Tennessee against Middle Tennessee (Feb. 12) and Vanderbilt (Feb. 13). The final road match of the opening road slate will take place at Saint Louis (Feb. 17), before the Redbirds host their two matches at home at the Bloomington Tennis & Turf complex in a split doubleheader against DePaul and UIS (Feb. 19).
The homestand will continue with matches the following weekend against Eastern Illinois (Feb. 20) and Bellarmine (Feb. 21), before the Redbirds hit the road again for their first Summit League contest at Drake (Feb. 28). A pair of matches in Mississippi against Southern Mississippi and Tennessee State (March 10) will be next, and those will be followed by road matches at UAB (March 14) and Marquette (March 20).
Four-straight Summit League contests are next on the schedule, as March wraps up with a road match at North Dakota (March 27) and April begins with a road contest at Nebraska-Omaha (April 3). ISU will then return home to host Oral Roberts (April 16) and Denver (April 17) to wrap up the conference portion of the schedule, before ending the regular season with a home match against Chicago State (April 24). The Summit League Championships in Denver (April 29-May 1) will close things out for the Redbirds.
"The schedule has turned out to be probably the toughest schedule I've had in my eight years here at ISU," Klysner said. "We've got 26 matches and we are playing teams from the ACC, SEC and the AAC. With a constant threat of the season getting halted at any point, I have managed to schedule quite a few doubleheaders with some of the power five schools in order to play as much tennis as possible while we can. At this point, we can only control our team and do our best to stay healthy and hope all of our opponents do the same."
In accordance with state and local guidelines, fans are currently not allowed to attend home ISU Athletics events. Game dates, opponents, times and locations are all subject to change.
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