THIS WEEK
Western Michigan heads to the NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament for the 14th time in its program history, traveling to the University of Illinois on Friday for a NCAA First Round match against No. 34 Notre Dame at 2 p.m. ET.

THE MATCHUP
Notre Dame leads the all-time series 42-21. The two teams battled earlier this season on Feb. 13, with the Fighting Irish handing the Broncos their lone loss of the season, 5-2. This is the second time the two teams have met during the NCAA Tournament. The first meeting came back on May 12, 2018 in the first round. UND won 4-1, with Eric Olivarez scoring WMU's point in a singles victory at No. 6, 6-2, 6-0 over Grayson Broadus. 

SCOUTING THE FIGHTING IRISH
Notre Dame has been off since April 22 after getting bounced out of the ACC tournament in the opening round, 4-3, by Florida State.

The Fighting Irish boast two nationally-ranked singles players in No. 36 Alex Nefve (18-3) and No. 82 Richard Ciamarra (14-7). UND also has two nationally-ranked doubles teams in No. 22 Nefve and Tristan McCormick (10-4) and No. 43 in Nefve again and Ciamara (5-1). 

Back in February the Broncos took two points in the match against UND.  The teams of Jannik Opitz and Zac Faveri, along with Peter Kuszynski and Joaquin Caballer combined to earn WMU the doubles point. Freshman Brogan Pierce won in three sets at No. 6, 6-7, 6-2, 1-0 to earn a point in singles over Andrew Mariados. 

ANOTHER ONE
After claiming the MAC Regular Season Championship junior Peter Kuszynski was named MAC Men's Singles Player of the Week. The chance to win the MAC Championship outright came down to Kuszynski's battle at No. 2 singles with Northern Illinois' Kristopher Ortega. The match was tied at 3-3 and the Kuszynski and Ortega were in their third set after Ortega won the first one 6-4 and Kuszynski rebounded on the second one 6-3. The junior finished off Ortega 6-4 in the final set to give WMU its 26th MAC Regular Season Championship in program history.

The Broncos have dominated the MAC Weekly Awards this season, earning five MAC Singles Player of the Week awards and eight MAC Doubles Team of the Week awards.