Northwestern Hosts UIC for Saturday Dual Match

Saturday, February 28

Evanston, Ill.

12 p.m. CT

Northwestern

UIC

Northwestern Hosts UIC for Saturday Dual Match

2/27/2026 2:37:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Charlie Spungin, NUSports.com

EVANSTON, lll. — Winners of 10 of its last 11 matches, No. 49-ranked Northwestern welcomes UIC to Combe Tennis Center on Saturday, Feb. 28 at noon CT, for its penultimate non-conference match.

This past weekend, the Wildcats (10-3) closed their weekend with a 4-3 comeback victory over Denver on Sunday after a Friday loss to Notre Dame. Junior Ethan Schiffman registered a 6-4, 6-3 victory, and sophomore Carter Pate followed suit shortly after with a 6-4, 7-5 win. Northwestern trailed 3-2, but junior Greyson Casey evened the match at three apiece with a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) triumph. First-year Cooper Han clinched the match for the Wildcats with a 6-0, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4 result. The match marked Northwestern's first comeback from down 3-2 since Feb. 19, 2023, against Clemson.

The Wildcats' 10 wins currently are the second most in the Big Ten. By entering the top 50 of the ITA's rankings, Northwestern is ranked as a top 50 team nationally for the first time since March 5, 2024. The Wildcats' 10-3 record on the season is their best start to a dual season since 2022. A win on Saturday would improve them to 11-3, which would be the program's best opening to a season through 14 games since 2016. Before the loss to the Fighting Irish, Northwestern held a nine-match winning streak, the program's longest streak since winning nine straight to open the 2017 dual season.

The Wildcats are led by a pair of ranked doubles teams. Pate and Casey, who have teamed up exclusively as Northwestern's No. 1 doubles pairing, check in as the ITA's No. 73 duo. They have logged an unblemished 9-0 record on the season, which is the most wins by a Wildcat duo since the 2023 dual season, when Trice Pickens and Natan Spear had 11 wins together (11-12), and Simen Bratholm and Steven Forman had nine (9-4). Playing primarily at No. 2 doubles for Northwestern, Schiffman and junior Cyrus Mahjoob have posted a 5-2 doubles record together. They are ranked as the No. 70 team nationally.

Pate, who has competed at the No. 1 slot in both singles and doubles in the majority of his matches, leads the team in both singles (9-3) and doubles (10-1) victories. Pate's 19 total wins lead the team. He holds a 5-3 record at No. 1 singles, making him the first Wildcat to have a record over .500 at No. 1 singles since the 2023 dual season, when Forman (11-4) and Ivan Yatsuk (5-2) did so.

Behind Pate, Schiffman has tallied the second most wins on the team with 15. He has an 8-2 singles record, playing primarily at No. 4 slot, and a 7-2 doubles record.

Han is yet to lose a match in his college career. Competing at the No. 6 singles position in all but one match, Han has a 6-0 singles record, as well as a 3-0 doubles record. His six singles wins are the most by a Northwestern first-year since Felix Nordby in the 2022 dual season (6).

The Wildcats currently lead the all-time series against the Flames (6-3), 21-0. All matches to date have taken place in Evanston. The two squads are set to square off for the fifth consecutive season.

UIC is coming off a long weekend in which it played three road matches, earning 4-3 victories over Cleveland State and IU Indianapolis before returning to the state of Illinois, where it fell 6-1 to No. 36 Illinois. The Flames are led by Artem Alekseychuk, who has a 5-1 record at No. 1 singles, and Eldin Nokic, who has a 6-1 record at No. 2 singles.

Northwestern kicks off Big Ten schedule and closes out its non-conference slate next weekend inside Combe Tennis Center. Action kicks off on Friday, March 6, against No. 64 Washington at 6 p.m. CT and is followed by a Sunday, March 8 doubleheader versus No. 56 Oregon and Creighton, with matches at 11 a.m. CT and 6:30 p.m. CT, respectively.