The last two home matches of the season for the men’s tennis team will be played this weekend at the Stickey Tennis Center. The Buckeyes will be in action against two Big Ten teams: Northwestern at 3 p.m. today and No. 2 Illinois at 1 p.m. Sunday. After tough losses in matches last weekend against the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, the team is preparing for this weekend’s challenge.”Both are very good teams. We feel good about Northwestern because we match up well with their team,” coach John Daly said. Northwestern is a good team, but the Buckeyes may have a good shot of beating them if the individuals are matched up in its favor, Daly said. The teams won’t know the match-ups until they turn in their lineup.”Northwestern is always a solid team that plays with a lot of confidence,” junior Ben Richardson said. “The Northwestern team lost a lot of their top guys last year and that is a disadvantage to them.”After splitting two very close singles matches last weekend, sophomore Derek DeFalco is preparing for this weekend’s matches. “I feel pretty good. Things feel like they are coming together,” he said.A major factor in winning the matches this weekend will be winning in the doubles matches. Last weekend the team lost the point for the doubles matches. In the case of the MSU match, the doubles match point was big in the 4-3 win for MSU. “We need the doubles point. Other than that we match up very well,” DeFalco said.The key to defeating Northwestern will be having the confidence to win. “The biggest challenge to winning against Northwestern is making sure we have the confidence to beat them,” Daly said.The other match against No. 2 Illinois is going to be difficult because they are the highest ranked team in the Big Ten.”Illinois is ranked the highest ever of any Big Ten team,” Daly said. “For us to beat Illinois we need a break and to play well with more confidence.” Again with Illinois, the game will depend on the individual match up and the winning of the doubles point. Illinois plays tough doubles but OSU has a good opportunity to win, Daly said.”We have a chance to beat Illinois if we stay positive and keep our heads high,” DeFalco said.In these up-coming matches, look for all the players to try and step up and take a strong role, especially Chris Porter. “Chris has played some really tough opponents and if he can beat some of these guys we’ll be better off,” Daly said.”We are playing pretty well, but we are not getting the breaks and we need confidence; either one or both will help us to win. We just need to keep our heads in the match and we have a good shot at winning both matches,” Richardson said.
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