Contact: Renee Adam
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State men's tennis team will close out the regular season this weekend, traveling to Butler and Wright State for a pair of matches. The Vikings will begin the weekend with a non-league contest at Butler on Saturday, April 20 and will then take on Wright State in the final Horizon League matchup of the season on Sunday, April 21. Both matches are set to begin at 2:00 p.m.
Against Butler: The Vikings have posted a 5-7 record against the Bulldogs under head coachBrian Etzkin, but Saturday's contest will be the first non-league matchup between the two teams. Entering the weekend Butler stands at 9-11 this season, and Saturday's contest will be its final tune-up before the A-10 Championships.
***This match will be played at Hamilton Southeastern High School in Fishers, Ind.
Against Wright State: Over the past 10 seasons CSU has gone 9-3 against Wright State, with its nine wins coming in the last 10 meetings. The Raiders are 12-10 overall this season and 3-1 in league play, and will face Youngstown State prior to Sunday's matchup.
***This match is scheduled to be played on the Wright State University Campus at 2:00 p.m. In case of inclement weather the match will be moved indoors to the South Regency Tennis Center with a 4:00 p.m. start time.
The Vikings enter the weekend standing at 8-11 overall and 4-1 in Horizon League action, and will be trying to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Horizon League Tournament (April 26-28) with a win against the Raiders on Sunday. Last time out CSU picked up a pair of wins over UIC (4-3) and Valparaiso (7-0), finishing the season with a 5-1 mark at home.
The trio of Matt Kuelker, Ali Shabib and Niklas Jonsson each posted two victories over the weekend, with Shabib and Jonsson keeping their league records perfect - Shabib at 5-0 (No. 3 singles) and Jonsson at 3-0 (No. 4 singles). Kuelker has a team-best 16-13 record this year, and now ranks sixth all-time at Cleveland State with 54 career singles wins.
The Vikings also have two doubles teams that have been perfect in league play so far this season - the No. 1 duo of Ali Shabib andNiklas Jonsson and the No. 2 tandem of Nolan Marks and Matt Kuelker. Both doubles teams are 5-0 in Horizon League action and enter the weekend on multi-match win streaks - Shabib & Jonsson on a 6-match win streak and Marks & Kuelker on a 5-match win streak.
After picking up two wins last weekend, Shabib and Jonsson have an overall record of 22-5 this season, ranking fifth all-time on the CSU single season wins list. The duo needs just two more wins to move into third on the list and four to move into second place. Shabib and Jonsson are the first Viking duo to reach 20 wins in a single season since the team of Rob Fox and John Haleyfinished the 2010-11 season with a 28-10 record.
