By Katie Rippel
Staff Writer

The doubles matches will be critical for the Purdue men’s tennis team as it kicks off the spring season this weekend by hosting Western Michigan and Ball State.

"This may be our toughest opening weekend to start off the season," said Coach Tim Madden.

He said the team has had a sense of urgency in practice this week because of the strong competition. Western Michigan and Ball State are two of the MAC conference’s best teams and are coming off big wins over quality teams. Western Michigan just beat Michigan State, while Ball State defeated Vanderbilt.

Though the three doubles matches are worth only one point out of the seven possible for the match, Madden believes they will be key for two reasons.

First, because the doubles matches take place before singles action, winning them means that the team only has to split its singles competition to win the overall match.

Secondly, a win in the doubles adds a burst of momentum and intensity with which to start the singles matches.

The Boilermakers’ No. 1 doubles team of junior Jason Marshall and freshman Andrew Wakefield are ranked 39th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings heading into this weekend.

Along with the ranking, the pair brings along some good fall experience against strong opponents. The duo won the South Carolina Fall Invitational, something Madden thinks really helped Wakefield by giving him a good confidence boost.

As for Marshall, the junior can expect some fierce competition at No. 1 singles from both Western Michigan and Ball State.

"There is no doubt that both of those teams will be going after Jason Marshall," said Madden.

Purdue will start young athletes in its singles rotation this weekend. In addition to Marshall and Wakefield, sophomores Derek Miller and Laith Al-Agba and freshmen Carl McCafferty and Scott Mayer will compete in singles matches.

Madden is looking for good play from Al-Agba, who greatly improved his singles game last fall. Madden will also look for more consistency from Miller.

"Derek Miller has shown some stretches of highs and some stretches of lows," said Madden.

The Boilers will look to start their season on the right foot this weekend, providing some momentum going into a long stretch of national powerhouse opponents.

• Both matches this weekend will be played at the Lafayette Sports Center, with the Western Michigan match starting at 1 p.m. Saturday and the Ball State match getting under way at 1 p.m. Sunday.