TOPEKA, Kan. -- No. 15 Washburn men's tennis heads back outdoors and will host McPherson College on Tuesday beginning at 1 p.m., before heading back on the road. 

Ichabod Breakdown

• Washburn finishes its short home stint with a Tuesday afternoon matchup against McPherson College beginning at 1 p.m. 
• The Ichabods are now 6-1 on the year after a 6-1 win over Rockhurst on Saturday afternoon. 
• McPherson is 2-1 on the year and has won two straight matches entering Tuesday. 
• Washburn has won three straight matches which equals its longest streak of the season. 
• The Ichabods are 13-2 all-time against McPherson and have won the last eight.
• Washburn is ranked 15th  nationally in the latest ITA Coaches Poll. 
• The Ichabods were picked to finish second in the MIAA/GAC Preseason Coaches Poll 
• Washburn went 17-6 in 2021-22 and earned a second consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament. 
• The Ichabods return eight players from last seasons roster and add one transfer and one freshman. 

Washburn who's who

• Sebastian Pjontek enters the spring ranked No. 35 in the nation in singles
• Pjontek is joined by Tim Hammes and the pair are ranked No. 12 by the country in doubles
• Santiago Rendon leads the Ichabods with 10 singles victories going 10-4 on the year and has won his last three matches. 
• Daniel Bird has a 9-2 record in singles play, is 6-0 in duals and has won his last seven matches overall. 
• Miquel Perez is 5-4 in singles and has won two straight matches since returning from injury. 
• Hammes leads Washburn with 11 doubles wins, going 6-0 in duals and 3-0 at No. 2
• Bird has a 9-2 doubles record this season and is 6-0 in duals. Him and Yoshinobu Nakatsuji are a perfect 4-0 together. 
• Hammes and Santiago Rendon are 5-0 as doubles partners splitting time at No. 1 and No. 2
• Sebastian Pjontek has six doubles wins on the year and went 5-3 in tournament play
• Moritz Pieper has gone 7-2 in doubles on the year and is 4-0 in duals including a 3-0 record at No. 3
• Washburn has won 61.0% of its singles matches this year going 50-32 overall
• The Ichabods have won 65.1% of its doubles matches with a 28-15 record
• In duals those numbers go up to 76.2% in singles and 84.2% in doubles. 

Last time on the court

• Washburn won its third straight match with a 6-1 win over Rockhurst at the Genesis Tennis Center in Topeka. 
• The Ichabods won two out of three contests in doubles play with No. 1 and No. 2 wins
• Tim Hammes, Santiago Rendon, Daniel Bird and Yoshinobu Nakatsuji each went 2-0 on the day with Hammes winning both No. 1 matches. 
• Both winning doubles pairs, Hammes/Rendon and Bird/Nakatsuji stayed unbeaten together on the year with a combined record of 9-0.
• Miquel Perez won a second straight singles match, with a two-set victory at No. 3

Milestone markers 

• Tim Hammes is four singles victory away from 25 in his career
• Miquel Perez is one singles wins away from 30 in his career
• Daniel Bird needs one more victory in singles to reach the 30 mark and four wins to reach 30 in doubles
• Noah Neideck needs one more singles victory to reach 10 career wins 

Head coach Kirby Ronning

• Ronning is in his third year as head coach of the Ichabod men's and women's tennis teams
• He has led both teams to the NCAA tournament in both seasons at the helm
• Ronning has a combined record of 72-29 in his two plus seasons at Washburn
• Prior to joining the Ichabods Ronning spent four seasons as the assistant coach at Azusa Pacific from 2016-2022
• Ronning played for Bethel University (Minn.) for four seasons and was honored with the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Sportsmanship award two times.

The assistants

• Volunteer assistant Kurt Reid and graduate assistant Raul-Alin Dicu round out the men's coaching staff
• Reid enters his fourth season as an assistant with the Ichabods.
• He started his collegiate tennis career at Tulsa (1977-78) before transferring to Washburn for the 1978-79 season.
• Dicu joins the Ichabods after a five-year standout career for Washburn from 2017-22
• He finished his career with a 56-45 singles record and 53-41 doubles mark and is in the top-20 in singles and doubles wins in program history

Opponent Quick Scout
Match #8 - vs McPherson
Microscope on McPherson

• McPherson enters Tuesday's match with a 2-1 record after defeating Doane University 7-0 on Sunday and capturing a 4-3 win over Midland University the day before 
• McPherson is ranked No. 23 in the NAIA Tennis Rankings
• The Bulldogs have won two straight matches
• McPherson is 1-1 on the road this year and has not played a home match yet 
• Last season the Bulldogs went 14-2 and won the KCAC conference tournament defeating Southwestern College in the Championship
• They qualified for the NAIA National Championships and lost in the first round 
• Michael Beltran is ranked No. 50 in the ITA NAIA singles rankings
• Beltran and Martin Millos are the No. 13 ranked doubles pairing in the ITA doubles rankings

McPherson Staff

• Keiran President is in his second season of leading both the men's and women's Bulldog tennis programs
• President comes to McPherson College after spending two years as an assistant coach at William Woods University 
• President, a native of Castries, St. Lucia was the number one ranked junior in singles and doubles in 14U and 18U nationally. In 2011 he got the privilege to represent St. Lucia in the Junior Davis Cup in El Salvador
• Assistant coach Craig Holman rounds out the staff 

History with the Bulldogs

• Washburn and McPherson have played 15 times with the Ichabods leading the all-time series 13-2
• Washburn is 8-1 in matches played in Topeka
• This is the first time the two have played since Feb. 23, 2018 
• Washburn has won the last eight matches against the Bulldogs
• The series goes back to April 3, 1974 which was a 5-4 win for the Ichabods in Topeka. 

Schedule spring forward

• Tuesday's match against McPherson will be Washburn's final home match before heading to Oklahoma to take on Cameron University. 
• The Ichabods will travel to Florida in March to play four matches in five days 
• Washburn has four MIAA matches on the slate in the spring including Saturday's match.
• The longest home stretch of the season comes from March 23 to March 31 with four matches in that time  
• The match on March 31 against Newman will be senior day for the Ichabods.  
• Washburn wraps up the regular season with two matches in Arkansas, the final regular season game comes on April 15 against Southern Arkansas University
• The Men's MIAA Tournament will take place from April 19-21