The West Campus Courts north of Huskie Stadium will be occupied this weekend by the Mid-Continent Conference men’s tennis entourage.

NIU will host the first Mid-Continent Individual Tennis Tournament beginning Friday at 10 a.m; play will continue Saturday at 8 a.m. Competition in eight singles and four doubles will take place.

The line-up for the Huskies has changed since last spring. Greg O’Neil has wrestled the No. 1 position away from Mats Person. Person holds the No. 2 position and Dustin Dobrin has the No. 3 position. Steve Senter is the No. 4 player, and last year’s No. 3 player and All-AMCU selection Erik Andersch has dropped down to No. 5 so far this year. Dave Settlemeyer sits at No. 6, while Andy Mabadi and Andy Schoeberlein round out the top eight.

“It’s a big shake up (in the line-up), but it’s early,” second-year coach Charles Merzbacher said.

The change should motivate the Huskies throughout the year. Person will be looking to regain the No. 1 position and Andersch should be motivated to move up in the rankings, while the rest of the group will be looking to hold on to their spots.

“Things have changed drastically since last fall to last spring, and it’ll be like that this year. I’ll take things day by day and see how things turn out,” Merzbacher said.

As last year’s runner-up in the Mid-Continent championship tournament, NIU is the favored to win the tournament. “Everyone is playing well right now. We’re ready for a match. We’re starved for new blood, new opponents—we’re tired of playing against each other,” Merzbacher said.

Among the schools competing, Western Illinois seems to have made the most improvement. “Western had a fantastic recruiting year. They look to be real strong,” Merzbacher said.

Merzbacher also expects Valparaiso to be tough. “They have everyone coming back, also their No. 1 and No. 2 players didn’t play in last year’s conference tournament because of injuries so they’re going to be pretty tough,” Merzbacher said.

“I’m confident that my guys will play well, but I’m not over-confident. Mentally our team is much stronger. They have the vision of where we want to go, and they’ll try very hard to get where we want to go,” Merzbacher said.