The No. 73 SMU men’s tennis team (10-9) is on a three-match winning streak and they will look to add two more victories this weekend when they host No. 38 University of Notre Dame (9-7) and DePaul University (6-14) this Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

The Mustangs have been on fire lately, and no one more so than junior Darren Walsh.
Walsh has won six straight singles matches and is part of the No. 29 doubles team in the nation, along with fellow junior Adham el-Effendi.

Junior Artem Baradach, No. 57 in the nation, will also look to continue his winning ways. Baradach faced a scare in the last match against Lamar University when he dropped the first set of his match with little resistance. However, he recovered quickly and rallied back for the victory 1-6, 6-1, 6-4.

“It was a hard fought match,” head coach Carl Neufeld said to smumustangs.com last week.

“I’m really excited by our doubles play and we were able to prevail in the tough singles matches.”

The Mustangs face a formidable opponent in the Fighting Irish. Their top player is Casey Watt, who is ranked No. 27 in the nation. SMU must also contend with No. 86 Daniel Stahl. And finally, their top doubles team, composed of Stephen Havens and Watts is ranked No. 61 in the nation.

The DePaul matchup should be a little easier for SMU. The Blue Demons have no ranked singles players or doubles teams. In their last match, they were swept, 7-0, by No. 75 University of Central Florida.

Following these two matches, the Mustangs will have four more before the end of the regular season. All of SMU’s matches from here on out will be at home in the Turpin Tennis Center until they reach the Conference USA championships, which start April 23.