No. 11 Virginia Faces No. 3 Georgia Friday To Open ITA National Team Indoor Championship
Tournament Central | Live Stats
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 11 Virginia women’s tennis team (5-0) opens the ITA National Team Indoor Championships on Friday (Feb. 7), facing No. 3 Georgia (4-0) at 1 p.m. ET at the XS Tennis Village in Chicago, Ill.
Fans can keep up with the action through a live stream and live stats linked at VirginiaSports.com. Updates will also be provided through the program’s official Twitter account (@UVAWomensTennis).
ABOUT THE ITA NATIONAL TEAM INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIP
The Championship event has been a staple of college tennis for 33 years. The competition is a single-elimination tournament spread over four days with the winner decided on Monday, February 10th. Although the tournament is single-elimination, each team is guaranteed three dual-matches over the course of the weekend.
The 16-team field this year features the top 12 teams in the latest ITA women’s tennis rankings and also includes three more nationally-ranked teams. In addition to Georgia and Virginia, this year’s field includes No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 North Carolina, No. 4 UCLA, No. 5 Duke, No. 6 Pepperdine, No. 7 Texas, No. 8 NC State, No. 9 Florida State, No. 10 Michigan, No. 12 Ohio State, No. 14 Arizona State, No. 17 Princeton, No. 22 Georgia Tech and host Illinois.
Georgia won last year’s event by defeating North Carolina, while this year’s top-seeded team, Stanford, has won the title 10 times.
The winner of Friday’s match between the Cavaliers and Bulldogs will advance to face either No. 5 Duke or No. 6 Pepperdine on Saturday (Feb. 8). The two losing teams will face each other in a consolation match on Saturday.
THE CAVALIERS IN THE RANKINGS
Virginia remains the nation’s 11th-ranked team in the ITA women’s tennis rankings, but there has been lots of movement in the women’s singles and doubles rankings for this week. Freshman Natasha Subhash (Fairfax, Va.) moved up to No. 21 in the rankings, while three more Cavaliers are also nationally ranked. Junior Rosie Johanson (Vancouver, British Columbia) comes in at No. 55, while sophomores Amber O’Dell (New Milford, N.J.) and Sofia Munera (Pereira, Colombia) come in at 73 and 87, respectively.
In the doubles rankings, the Cavalier duo of Chloe Gullickson (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and O’Dell are ranked No. 59.
A LOOK AT GEORGIA
The Bulldogs enter the weekend with a perfect record after posting wins over Michigan State and Notre Dame as part of the ITA Kickoff to earn a bid into this weekend’s ITA National Team Indoor Championship. Georgia also posted wins over Georgia Tech and Clemson.
The Bulldogs have four players ranked among the top 90 players in singles with freshman Lea Ma leading the way at No. 18 overall. In doubles, Georgia has two ranked doubles tandems with the pairing of Jokic and Anna Hertel leading the way at No. 42.
THE SERIES WITH THE BULLDOGS
Virginia and Georgia have faced each other four times with the Bulldogs holding a 3-1 lead in the all-time series. The last meeting came in 2016 when the Cavaliers dropped a 4-2 battle in Athens to then fourth-ranked Georgia. The lone Cavalier win in the series came at home in 2015 when then 10th-ranked Virginia defeated then ninth-ranked Georgia by a score of 4-2. The other two meetings came in 1980 and in 2014.
UP NEXT FOR THE HOOS
Following the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, the Cavaliers will return home to face No. 10 Michigan at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 15, at the Boar’s Head Sports Club.