After a rough weekend that lowered the men's tennis team'snational ranking to 73rd, the Cardinals are facing yet anotherranked team this weekend when they host No. 48 Michigan.
While Michigan is the eighth-ranked team the Cardinals havefaced this year, it is the first to face the Cardinals (5-8) athome. The Cardinals are 4-0 at home.
"Michigan is a very strong team," coach Bill Richards said."They're a very good team, but we've played a lot of good teamsthis year. I think it's important for us to make improvementsindividually for ourselves. Our focus is a lot more on that thanour opponents this weekend. We need to finish out a good week ofpractice and let the chips fall from there where they may."
Michigan is also the home to nationally ranked No. 46 MichaelRubin, who will likely face Matt Baccarani. Baccarani scored hisfirst victory over a ranked opponent last weekend.
After facing Michigan Saturday, the Cardinals will head toArizona on Monday for a week before facing Arizona thatSaturday.
No. 25 Arizona, who lost a very close match against No. 8 UCLArecently, is the second-highest ranked opponent the Cardinals havefaced this season, behind No. 1 Illinois.
"I think that Arizona's better than Michigan," Richards said."(They're a) very high profile, highly ranked team. That trip is anopportunity for us to train and work on our game with several daysof practice. And not just prepare for the weekend, but try and takethe time to make significant improvements."
While the Cardinals have struggled through the early part of theyear, Richards said that despite the problems, the Cardinals needto keep their heads up.
"I've been through this a number of times, obviously. We playthis schedule every year. If your composition is different, or yourteam is not quite as good, the wins can mass up quickly," he said."You can't feel sorry for yourself because you've got a couple oflosses, you need to go out and persevere and continue to work hardand overcome these problems."
After Arizona, the Cardinals will begin their MAC schedule March27 against Toledo. With conference play upcoming, and thecompetition looking tough, especially No. 61 Western Michigan,Richards said that playing the tougher teams will help theCardinals in the long run.
"We play the type of schedule that we've played, we do thatevery year, and part of that reason to get us hard enough for theconference schedule and the championship," he said.
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