The No. 25 Texas Tech men’s tennis team will travel to three-time defending NCAA national champion and No. 15 Virginia for ITA Kickoff Weekend at the Boyd Tinsley Courts at the Boar’s Head Sports Club this weekend.
The Red Raiders (9-1) will meet Virginia (2-0) for the first time in program history on Saturday. First serve is set for 9 a.m. CT with live video and live stats provided by www.VirginiaSports.com.
Columbia (1-0) and Ole Miss (4-0) will meet at 1 p.m. CT in the other opening round matchup. The two winners will meet Sunday at 12 p.m. CT for a spot in the ITA National Indoor Championships
“We have been working on stuff individually during this week’s practices,” Texas Tech head coach Brett Masi said. “A few guys need to fine tune a few things and get a little bit sharper. We had some time this week in practice to do that. Hopefully, we can give the defending national championships a run.”
The weekend’s event features 15 regional site on the men’s and women’s side with four teams competing in each regional. The winners of the single-elimination event advance to next month’s ITA National Indoor Championships.
Washington will serve as hosts for the ITA National Team Indoors from Feb. 16-19 and received automatic invitations to the event and are exempt from competing in the ITA Kickoff Weekend.
Host sites were determined using the final 2016-17 Oracle/ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings. A draft was held to fill the No.’s 2-4 seeds at all locations, again using the final national team rankings as a guide to determine draft order.
Texas Tech has won eight consecutive matches with four decisions coming via the sweep during the streak. The Red Raiders lone setback was to then No. 21 Florida State in Hawaii on Jan. 8.
Matheus Leite leads the way with an 8-2 singles mark during dual match action on the strength of a seven-match winning streak. He has won seven of his eight decisions between the No. 4 and No. 5 singles lines.
Connor Curry and Ilgiz Valiev have tucked away 7-2 singles records. Curry has anchored court one and won five of his six decisions, while Valiev has bounced around the top four spots in the lineup. He has won two matches apiece at the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 spots.
Artem Kapshuk and Valiev have been Texas Tech’s most consistent doubles pair on the young season going 5-2. The Red Raiders have already used 11 doubles combinations in 10 matches.
Visit www.TexasTech.com for the latest news and information on the men’s tennis program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/TechMensTennis and @TexasTechTennis on Twitter.
(Courtesy: Texas Tech Sports Communications Department)
