Virginia Opens Oracle ITA National Men’s Team Indoor Championship on Friday
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia men’s tennis team (7-1, 2-1 ACC) begins play at the 2019 ITA National Men’s Team Indoor Championship on Friday, February 15. The first team national championship of the year is being held at the Midtown Athletic Club in Chicago, Ill., and runs from Friday to Monday, February 18.
Live scoring and live video will be available for the matches through links posted on VirginiaSports.com.
First round matches take place on Friday, with quarterfinal and consolation draw matches scheduled for Saturday. Sunday will be main-draw semifinals and backdraw matches with the championship to be contested on Monday at 1 p.m. E.T.
Virginia earned the No. 8 seed in the tournament and will face ninth-seeded Stanford on Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET.
The ITA Division I National Men’s Team Indoor Championship is in its 44th year of existence. Fifteen teams qualified for the event by winning their respective 2019 ITA Kick-Off Weekend four-team regional, while Illinois received an automatic bid for being the host site. The teams will compete in a single-elimination tournament over a four-day span to crown a national indoor champion. Each team is guaranteed three matches at the event.
The Cavaliers have won six ITA National Team Indoor Championships, including four-straight from 2008 to 2011 and most recently in 2017 when the tournament was held in Charlottesville and the 2009 championship when it was held in this same location in Chicago. UVA has made eight appearances in the finals. Only Stanford (12) and UCLA (7) have won more ITA Indoors titles than Virginia.
Virginia advanced to the championship after downing Cal (4-2) and host-team Texas A&M (4-3) during ITA Kickoff Weekend at the end of January. The Cavaliers have won three-straight matches heading into the tournament, including toppling No. 1 Wake Forest, 5-2, last Friday in Charlottesville.
Freshman Brandon Nakashima (San Diego, Calif.) was named the ACC Men’s Tennis Singles Player of the Week for his performances against Wake Forest and Boston College. Nakashima took down the Demon Deacons’ Bar Botzer, ranked No. 21 in singles, in straight sets and also handed the Eagles’ top singles player, Derek Austin, his first loss of the dual season.
Junior Carl Soderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) is undefeated in singles this spring, with a 7-0 overall record, picking up four wins on the top court and three on court two. Söderlund capped the Wake Forest match with a 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1 victory over Borna Gojo at No. 1 singles.
Ohio State is the top seed in the tournament. The rest of the field (in order of seeding) includes No. 2 Mississippi State, No. 3 Wake Forest, No. 4 Florida, No. 5 Texas, No. 6 UCLA, No. 7 North Carolina, No. 8 Virginia, No. 9 Stanford, No. 10 Baylor, No. 11 Notre Dame, No. 12 Illinois, No. 13 USC, No. 14 Columbia, No. 15 TCU and No. 16 Tulane.
Tickets are $10 per person, per day for any non-Midtown Chicago member. Fans who are staying in The Hotel at Midtown are considered members and therefore will not be charged for the event. Parking is located directly across the street from the club and is also $10 per day.