MTEN Preview: ITA Indoor Championship
2/11/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
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FORT WORTH, Texas - For the second year in a row and 13th time in program history, the No. 2 TCU men's tennis team will take part in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship from Feb. 12-15 at the Boar's Head Sports Club in Charlottesville, Va.
Sixteen of the top Division I men's tennis teams will meet up for a chance to take the title at the lone team-based ITA National title this year. The Horned Frogs (3-1) have been seeded No. 5 in the tournament and will face No. 12 seed Illinois (5-1) on Friday at 2:30 p.m., CT, on courts 1-6. The Big 12 has the most teams in the field with four and TCU is the highest seed followed by defending champion and No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 11 Baylor and No. 14 Texas Tech.
TCU Notables
TCU is coming off a 1-1 weekend in Austin where the Frogs downed No. 18 Stanford, 4-2, before falling to No. 24 Cal, 4-2. In their lone loss of the season to the Golden Bears, TCU was able to snag the doubles point and go up 2-0 with a win in singles, but Cal put together four quick wins on the other singles courts to upset TCU.
In the most recent Oracle/ITA Rankings, TCU had three players snag a spot in the singles poll. Cameron Norrie continues to be ranked in the top-10 and checks in at No. 6 as the sophomore went 1-1 against two top-10 opponents last weekend. Guillermo Nuñez sits at No. 38 in the poll, while freshman Alex Rybakov enters the poll for the first time in his career at No. 122. Rybakov earned his first victory over a ranked opponent last weekend as he defeated No. 57 David Wilczynski of Stanford.
TCU went with a brand new doubles lineup last weekend and the risk paid off, as both tandems went 2-0 in Austin. At the No. 2 spot, Hudson Blake and Reese Stalder were able to get the first win in doubles for TCU on both days, while Rybakov and Nuñez clinched the doubles point at the No. 3 position against Cal and Stanford.
Scouting the Illini
Illinois sits at 5-1 on the season and earned their spot in the tournament after posting 4-0 victories over Notre Dame and Northwestern in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. The Illini started the season 4-0 before dropping their first match two weeks ago to North Carolina, 4-0. The team rebounded by facing off with the Fighting Irish for the second time in the season and came away with a 5-2 victory.
The Illini also have three ranked singles players with two ranked in the top 15 in the country. Jared Hiltzik sits at No. 10 in the Oracle/ITA poll and is 3-0 on the season, while Aleks Vukic went from unranked to No. 12 in this week's poll with a 4-0 record. Aron Hiltzik rounds out the ranked players and is tied for No. 69 with a 2-2 record in singles action.
All-Time Series
TCU and Illinois will be playing for the eighth time in program history, as the Frogs hold the slight advantage in the series record at 4-3. The teams last met just a season ago, as the Illini, then ranked No. 4 nationally, traveled to Fort Worth for a Monday afternoon showdown. TCU won the match decisively, 4-0, and Illinois became the first top-5 opponent defeated in the Roditi era.
The match on Friday marks the fourth time the teams will meet on a neutral site with Illinois holding a 2-1 advantage in the record. This will also be the first time the team's have met in the month of February, as all previous seven matches have been played in March dating back to the first meeting in 1984.
Live Results
Live scoring of all matches taking place on courts 1-6 will be available at VirginiaSports.com and live scoring and video of matches played on courts 7-12 will also be available on Virginia's website. A final recap of the TCU matches along with results will be available on GoFrogs.com following the completion of competition each day. In-match updates can also be found by following TCU men's tennis on twitter (@TCUMensTennis).
Players Mentioned
