CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – No. 16 Harvard Men's Tennis will begin their season this weekend as they travel to North Carolina to take on No. 21 NC State and No. 20 Duke.  First, Harvard will face No. 21 NC State in Raleigh, NC on Friday January 20 at 6:00 p.m.  After a day off, the Crimson will head to Durham, NC to take on No. 20 Duke at 1:00 p.m. on January 22.  The matches will be two of five contests against ranked opponents for the Crimson to begin the season.    

What to know

• In the most recent ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings, Harvard found itself within the top-20, sitting at No. 16.
• In the final singles and doubles rankings of the fall season the Crimson were represented by three singles players, and one doubles pairing.  Henry von der Schulenburg led the way at No. 22 followed by Harris Walker at No. 46, first-year Marc Ktiri at No. 105 and the duo of Daniel Milavsky and Ronan Jachuck at No. 40 in the double's standings. 
• Harvard is poised for another strong spring season following a fall that saw 15 wins over ranked opponents and 11 qualifiers for ITA Super Regionals.  Ultimately, the Crimson finished the fall with 87 singles wins and 23 doubles wins. 
• Senior co-captain Harris Walker led the team in singles wins this fall, registering a record of 13-7.  Walker made a run to the finals of the ITA Super Regionals which earned him a spot at the ITA Fall Nationals. 
• Also returning for the Crimson is ITA All-American Henry von der Schulenburg who made a sweet sixteen run in the NCAA singles brackets last season and took down five ranked opponents in six wins this fall.  
• The Crimson welcome a strong first-year class in Melchior Delloye, Marc Ktiri, Valdemar Pape, and Masato Perera.  All four first-years registered five or more singles wins this fall and qualified for the ITA Super Regionals. 
• Last spring the Crimson finished 19-5, making a run to the second round of the NCAA tournament and claiming the Ivy League Championship for the first time since 2017.  
• NC State and Duke have both began their seasons last week.  NC State stands at 2-1 having defeated UNC Greensboro twice before following Northwestern.  Duke traveled to Hawaii and competed at the Hawaii Invitational before grabbing their first win of the season over University of Hawaii. 
• The Crimson and the Wolfpack have met up only once previously in 2015 with Harvard coming out on top with a narrow 4-3 victory. 
• Harvard and Duke have faced each other 15 times with the Crimson currently leading the all-time series 13-2.  The last time the two teams met was in 2010 when the Blue Devils defeated the Crimson 4-0. 

Next up

The Crimson will travel back to North Carolina next weekend as they compete in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend hosted by University of North Carolina.  In their first match of the weekend, Harvard will face fellow Ivy squad, Columbia on January 28.  The following day the Crimson will face either No. 18 UNC or Oklahoma State.